LATEST CATHOLIC PRIEST CHILD/ADULT SEX ABUSE REPORTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

LATEST CATHOLIC PRIEST CHILD/ADULT SEX ABUSE REPORTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

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10/28/11 05:05 PM

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Mark Morris | History shows diocese can get it right
Kansas City Star - ‎16 hours ago‎
“Take abuse cases out of clerical hands” is how the National Catholic Reporter neatly summed up findings from a diocesan report on its handling of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan's case. The report, prepared by former US Attorney Todd Graves, ...
Vatican: Priest must be banned
Standard Speaker - ‎13 hours ago‎
Vatican officials say a priest accused of sexual misconduct must be permanently removed from the ministry, the Diocese of Scranton announced Wednesday. Monsignor J. Peter Crynes, former pastor of St. Therese's Catholic Church in Shavertown, ... Federal trial of accused pornographic priest delayed until 2012
National Catholic Reporter (blog) - ‎Oct 27, 2011‎
The federal trial against Fr. Shawn Ratigan, a priest of the Kansas City-St. Jospeh diocese who is accused of child pornography, has been continued until June 4, 2012, reports the AP. Ratigan's arrest in May has ...
Catholic order pays for Mexican priest's sex abuse
Comments 0Share97
Rachel Uranga

Reuters

5:11 p.m. EDT, October 27, 2011

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Legionaries of Christ will pay more than $20,000 apiece to at least four victims sexually abused by the order's Mexican founder, Father Marcial Maciel, three years after his death, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Maciel was an influential figure in the Roman Catholic Church who had the ear of the late Pope John Paul II.

But he died in 2008 at the age of 87, disgraced by allegations he sexually abused men and young boys, including a man who said he was Maciel's son.

The Maciel scandal is just one in a series of revelations about priest sex abuse to rock the Catholic Church.

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Founded by Maciel when he was in his early 20s, the Legion is a priestly order that runs private Catholic schools and charitable organizations in 22 countries via its network of 800 priests and 2,600 seminarians.

Accusations that Maciel lived a disturbing double-life, fathered children and was addicted to morphine-like drugs, have weakened the powerful order that boasted members of some of Mexico's wealthiest families.

Despite years of allegations, Maciel was spared official condemnation until 2006 when Pope Benedict obliged him to retire to a life of "prayer and penitence."

The payments of between $21,000 and $28,000 will be given to four or five victims and more compensation could follow, said Andreas Schoggl, a spokesman for the Legionaries of Christ in Vatican City.

"It's a way to repair damage and hopefully it's a way of healing," Schoggl said.

The compensation payments are a result of a commission set up in 2010 by the Vatican to probe abuses by Maciel. The sums are modest compared to million-dollar payouts awarded to victims of priest abuse in the United States.

In the largest settlement of its kind, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2007 agreed to pay $660 million to 500 victims of sexual abuse dating as far back as the 1940s. The U.S. church has paid $2 billion to victims since 1992.

Schoggl declined to provide details on how many people the commission has interviewed but said at least one of Maciel's victims is from Mexico.

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“Take abuse cases out of clerical hands” is how the National Catholic Reporter neatly summed up findings from a diocesan report on its handling of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan’s case.

The report, prepared by former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves, is a superb study of muddled thinking. Occasionally, a minor player steps forward to ask whether anybody had called police or identified the girls whose pictures were found on Ratigan’s computer. But for dreary stretches, the principal players simply thrash about, assuming that someone else was doing the right thing.

And that’s the charitable view, judging by many reactions to the recent indictment of Bishop Robert W. Finn and the diocese for allegedly failing to report child abuse for five months.

But while priests probably shouldn’t be investigating priests — even the diocese now recognizes that — clerics of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph once investigated a child abuse allegation with the zeal and vigor that was missing from its listless management of Ratigan.

Evidence for that is buried deep in federal civil court files.

Notes from a priest working at the chancery in 2004 show that a tipster contacted him on a July afternoon to report that a cleric may have had sexual contact with a teenage boy. The story was third-hand and murky, but the priest who received the report pulled the fire alarms.

He immediately contacted then-Bishop Raymond Boland and then-Vicar General Patrick Rush. Within hours, the diocese notified state child abuse workers.

Three days after the tip came in, the priest under suspicion appeared before the bishop to explain his side of the story, according to the notes. And the next day, the priest who received the tip collected the first of many written and verbal statements from other boys who knew whether the allegations were true.

Less than a week after the tip, the priest under suspicion was suspended formally from his duties at two parishes and informed he was under church investigation, even though the state already had closed its probe into the matter, finding no evidence to support the allegations.

The diocesan Independent Review Board met to consider the evidence. And less than a month after that chancery priest took the initial tip, the board concluded that the allegations were unfounded. Board members recommended, and Boland agreed, that should the newly exonerated priest be reassigned, his new parish should receive full disclosure about the probe.

The complete investigation, including those of the police and state child abuse specialists, took 28 days. And it began when a chancery priest received a tip and didn’t stop digging until he found the truth.

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Showing 1-10 of 49 comments

Right_Way1

It was a priest that Finn wanted out so Finn tried his best to get him out even though he was cleared by the state. Finn wanted that priest out because he saw it as an opportunity to get a priest out that didn't agree with Finn's ultra conservative views on the church. Also it may have made him ascend to the Bishops chair quicker if he made Boland look bad.

Finn perpetrated the cover up of Ratigan for 5 months because he did not want this on his watch. It backfired and now we know the full story.

Keep in mind that Finn admitted openly that he failed to report Ratigan in Dec 2010. The indictments confirmed Finn's admissions. Once the indictments were handed out, Finn plead not guilty. Which is it Finn you admitted guilt then took it back once you found out you might serve time.

Finn, Do the right thing. Listen to the Holy Spirit. Resign, change your plea to guilty and go to jail and pay the fine. The devil is using Finn to break the diocese at the expense of the safety of our children. The church has no room for bishops and priests who prefer to listen to the devil than our God.

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1 hour ago
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trapblock

Finn's ultraconservative views? There is no such thing in the church as conservatives and liberals... only fidelity and infidelity to the Truth...

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1 hour ago
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sloopy65

Exactly. Which is why he should resign.

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52 minutes ago
in reply to trapblock

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k7189

Since this is all so muddled up, a point of clarification. Bishop Finn was never simply "a priest working in the chancery" in Kansas City. He came here from St. Louis as Coadjutor Bishop, and was ordained as such in 2004. He succeeded Bishop Boland in 2005.

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3 hours ago
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tresdognite, long timeprofessional businesswoman and owner of a small art related family business for over 40 years., life long KC resident, philanthropic and volunteer background, and proficient baker of pies! interest in Kansas City professional sports, the arts scene, music, Kansas City based fine dining..and of course, KC BB-Q..

all the more reason for Finn to have followed procedures this time...

since he knew exactly how this should have been handled..and did not follow through, but slid it "under the rug"..and had showed before in a similar situation that he knew how to handle this type of act...it just makes him that much more guilty..no excuses, not now, not any more.

he betrayed his church, his families and those children.

just WHY would ANY church, Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise..want to hide a child abuser in their midst..one that is a part of their church...one that molests children....WHY...?

I dont care how faithfully, or lovingly they have served their church, and their flock..

they have committed the worst crime against children that there is.

Finn still needs to resign...anything less is criminal

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5 hours ago
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Malki_Tzedek

Finn has been charged with a misdemeanor not child abuse... Ratigan should be charged with abuse.

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4 hours ago
in reply to tresdognite

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tresdognite, long timeprofessional businesswoman and owner of a small art related family business for over 40 years., life long KC resident, philanthropic and volunteer background, and proficient baker of pies! interest in Kansas City professional sports, the arts scene, music, Kansas City based fine dining..and of course, KC BB-Q..

I understand that..

to my mind, Finn is every bit as quilty, for covering for the priest, and letting it continue for that length of time.

Had Finn reported this at the very FIRST inkling, none of the rest of this would have happened.

Finn should resign

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4 hours ago
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Malki_Tzedek

The author here is showing that Finn has been a 'whistle blower' in the past and did what was right. Which should buy him an ounce of compassion here... he is not the one charged with child abuse. Isn't it possible in light of his past as a 'whistle blower' that he mis-judged this one?

You've got to admit a grand jury for a misdemeanor is too much.

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4 hours ago
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sloopy65

No...the misdemeanor is too little. But that's what a team of lawyers will buy you.

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1 hour ago
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tresdognite, long timeprofessional businesswoman and owner of a small art related family business for over 40 years., life long KC resident, philanthropic and volunteer background, and proficient baker of pies! interest in Kansas City professional sports, the arts scene, music, Kansas City based fine dining..and of course, KC BB-Q..

mis-JUDGED..?

he took the computer from Ratigan, saw the images, farmed him out to another area, made him promise not to be around children..

then Ratigan is caught again, and Finn hears about it...moves him to a house where other priests will "care for him"...?

NO, HELL NO...

Finn didn't misjudge him, he knew EXACTLY, from his prior experiences, that he should have turned Ratigan in RIGHT THEN...but, he continued to cover up for him, move him around, deny there was a problem...

NO NO NO.

no more excuses, no more lies..no more Finn...no more Ratigan, and I hope they smoke out the rest of the guilty priests, and anyone else they find that is guilty of furthering the possibilities of child abuse in the church.

Vatican orders inquiry into child sex abuse claims at UK schools
Telegraph.co.uk - ‎Oct 25, 2011‎
The Pope has ordered an unprecedented inquiry into alleged child sex abuse by senior clerics at a Roman Catholic school in Ealing, west London. By Amy Willis The top-level inquiry was ordered following investigations by The Times newspaper, ... Pope orders inquiry into child sex abuse at West London school
National Secular Society - ‎8 hours ago‎
The Vatican has ordered an inquiry into claims of decades of sexual abuse at a London abbey and school. Monks and teachers at Ealing Abbey and neighbouring St Benedict's independent school in west London have been accused of abuse from the 1960s until ...

The Vatican has ordered an inquiry into claims of decades of sexual abuse at a London abbey and school.

Monks and teachers at Ealing Abbey and neighbouring St Benedict‘s independent school in west London have been accused of abuse from the 1960s until 2009. Last year the Times revealed four decades of abuse by Father David Pearce, a priest at Ealing Abbey and former headmaster of St Benedict‘s junior school.

After the revelations about Fr Pearce, allegations of abuse were made against other former priests and teachers at St Benedict‘s — and other schools — over the decades as further victims came forward, prompting police to begin a fresh inquiry.

The Catholic hierarchy in England regularly insists that it has very strong child protection policies. The Vatican has come under fire after it emerged the results of the inquiry will not automatically be made public.

Keith Porteous Wood, NSS Executive Director, said: “The procedures in place now completely lack independence and are bound to lead to this kind of problem. Complainants should be able to contact directly someone completely independent of the Church. Until this happens, the problem will continue. The lack of transparency also shows how the Vatican continues to act behind closed doors and think of its own reputation before the victims. ”

Peter Saunders of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said the inquiry was a public relations exercise and akin to “putting Dracula in charge of a blood bank”. Graham Wilmer, who heads the Lantern Project and says he was abused by a priest as a teenager, commented: “We can’t trust them. What effectively has happened is nothing.”

Police are trying to find Father Laurence Soper, former Abbot of Ealing Abbey, who jumped bail before he could be charged with child abuse offences. He has disappeared from the headquarters of the Benedictine order inRome, where he was treasurer of the Benedictine Confederation.

Fri, 28 Oct 2011

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What The Papers Say...

Royal equality act will scrap 'outdated' law preventing monarch from marrying a Catholic

Vatican officials say a priest accused of sexual misconduct must be permanently removed from the ministry, the Diocese of Scranton announced Wednesday.

Monsignor J. Peter Crynes, former pastor of St. Therese's Catholic Church in Shavertown, will be relegated to a life of prayer and penance, according to a decision by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Congregation instructed the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, bishop of the Scranton Diocese, to issue a decree imposing the permanent penalty.

Crynes is forbidden to celebrate Mass, administer the sacraments, wear clerical garb or present himself publicly as a priest, and he is expected to dedicate his life to praying for victims and repenting of his past offenses, Dan Gallagher, manager of community affairs for the diocese, stated in a media release.

Crynes, a Scranton native, was ordained in 1967 and named monsignor in 1998. His assignments included assistant pastor of St. Patrick Church in White Haven. He was also assistant director of Camp St. Andrew, director of Our Lady of Fatima Retreat Center, professor at St. Pius X Seminary and a director of Bishop Hannan High School.

Crynes was named pastor of St. Therese's in 1994, and was popular with parishioners.

When Crynes resigned and was removed from active ministry in May 2006 after two women from one of his previous parishes accused him of sexual misconduct, the congregation responded with disbelief and circulated a petition to the diocese asking to allow him to remain.

In an August 2006 letter to St. Therese's parishioners, Bambera's predecessor, Bishop Joseph Martino, stated Crynes "admitted to the Diocese of Scranton that he had engaged in unchaste behavior in the past with high school girls."

The diocese performed an internal investigation, then sent the matter to the Holy See for a determination.

Gallagher said the diocese directs anyone who has been sexually abused by a member of the clergy or anyone else to immediately notify local law enforcement authorities.

Victims are also encouraged to contact Joan Holmes, Diocesan Victims Assistance Coordinator, at 570-344-5216, or diocesan officials such as the Rev. Thomas Muldowney, episcopal vicar for clergy, or Teresa Osborne, chancellor, at 570-207-2216.

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The federal trial against Fr. Shawn Ratigan, a priest of the Kansas City-St. Jospeh diocese who is accused of child pornography, has been continued until June 4, 2012, reports the AP.

Ratigan's arrest in May has brought controversy on the diocese regarding when it reported the priest to police. Both Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese as a whole were charged by a county prosecutor earlier this month with separate counts of failure to report suspected child abuse.

From the AP report:
The Rev. Shawn F. Ratigan had been previously scheduled to go on trial Monday. But his public defender, Bob Kuchar, asked for a continuance, saying he had not had time to adequately prepare for the case.
Kuchar was appointed to defend Ratigan in September after previous lawyers withdrew from the case.

Ratigan is facing three state child pornography charges and 13 federal charges alleging he possessed, produced and attempted to produce child porn.

The 45-year-old has pleaded not guilty on all charges.

Rebecca Summers, the diocesan spokesperson, said in a phone interview that, to her knowledge, Ratigan's previous lawyer had been John O'Connor, an attorney with the local firm Wagstaff & Cartmell.

While O'Connor is a Catholic, Summers said the lawyer had taken up the priest's defense of his own initiative, and had been working pro bono.

A phone call to O'Connor's office was not immediately returned this morning.

For more on the controversy surrounding the Ratigan case, see: After indictment, KC Catholics wonder what's next.

A woman filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Louis Oct. 24 claiming to have been abused by Joseph Ross, a laicized priest of the archdiocese.

According to a statement from the archdiocese, the plaintiff in the civil case is the same person who brought criminal charges against Ross for abuse reportedly occurring in 1998-2000 when Ross was the pastor at St. Cronan Parish in south St. Louis. These charges were subsequently dropped by the circuit attorney for the City of St. Louis in August 2010.

The archdiocese will review the lawsuit when it is received and investigate the complaint, the statement noted.

Ross resigned his pastorship in 2002 due to substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors that occurred in the 1980s. Then-Archbishop Justin Rigali initiated the laicization proceedings at the request of Ross after removing him from ministry.

Laicization, which is granted by the pope, means that a priest has been definitively returned to the status of a layman, is dispensed from all the obligations that he assumed by sacred orders and that a diocese no longer has responsibility for his support.

Ross had pleaded guilty in 1988 to an earlier misdemeanor charge of sexual abuse in the second degree. The court imposed probation at that time, requiring him to continue in therapy. An archdiocesesan spokesman said in 2002 that Ross' reassignments in the past would not have occurred under newer clinical standards and archdiocesan policies.

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A panel of Roman Catholic priests and others in church life faced an audience of lively fifth graders Thursday, offering snippets of their personal history histories and the motivation for their career choices. But many children were so unfamiliar with a nun's habit and veil that several directed remarks to "the lady in the blue dress."

"We have regular teachers, not nuns," said Craig Kelly, a student at St. Ursula School in Parkville who attended a conference Thursday at Notre Dame of Maryland University. Classmate Cathyrose Odoh added, "They are not the ordinary people we see every day."

In Maryland and across the country, the Roman Catholic Church is looking to inspire younger students with a zeal for religious life and help stem decades of decline in the ranks of nuns and priests. National research suggests that students start to consider the priesthood or sisterhood at as young as 11.

But overcoming students' unfamiliarity — even at Catholic schools — can be a challenge.

"With the declining numbers, religious are less visible in terms of culture and population than they were generations ago," said Mark Gray, senior research associate with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, based at Georgetown University. "It is less likely that a child today would interact with a priest or nun."

The center conducted a nationwide survey that showed many priests, brothers and nuns first considered religious life before they were teens. That data prompted the National Religious Vocation Conference to develop a "Focus 11" program as an appeal to 11-year-olds. About 700 students participated in the daylong event at Notre Dame.

"It crossed my mind, when I was about that age," said Sister Patricia Dowling, vocation director for the Sisters of Bon Secours and co-chair of the event. "I even played at saying Mass."

The Catholic Church has for the last several decades experienced declining numbers of candidates for the priesthood and the religious life. Some of the factors blamed for the decrease are the required vows of celibacy and the fact that priesthood is limited to men. Church sex abuse scandals have hurt as well, said Brother Paul Bednarczyk, executive director of the National Religious Vocation Conference.

He cited a 2009 study that found a slight increase in the number of young adults entering religious life and said there is cause for optimism.

"We saw numbers dipped after the scandals in the 1990s, but since 2000, we have seen renewed interest," he said. "Many are coming to religious life wanting to show it is a valid way to live with a sense of authenticity and integrity, almost as though they wanted to correct the wrongs of the past."

Dowling helped organize the first Focus 11 in Maryland and is planning several others. It drew students from Catholic elementary schools throughout the area. They met with priests, brothers and sisters, prayed and sang together and participated in activities designed to give insights into the life of a Catholic cleric.

"There is anecdotal evidence that many know from a young age that they want to become a priest or religious," said Gray."Our survey asked, 'When did you feel the call?' and the responses remained consistent that it came early."

In the Archdiocese of Baltimore, only two priests have been ordained in the past two years. Since 1965, the number of priests nationwide has dropped from nearly 60,000 to fewer than 40,000, according to statistics from CARA. There are less than a third as many nuns today in the United States as there were 50 years ago, and while the Catholic population has increased, many parishes are not staffed by a resident priest.

"There are far too few priests today to meet the church's needs," said Gray. "That is why programs like this are so important."

Focus 11 includes activities like a quiz game between the children and panelists, who included a priest, a brother, a deacon and two nuns. The back and forth showed the children that vocations come from people leading ordinary lives.

"Nobody is born a priest or nun," said Sister Fran Gorsuch, who played emcee for the game. "God called them to that life. And, that life is anything but boring."

When she asked which panelist was a Phillies baseball fan and a motorcyclist who worked in the Dominican Republic, the children chose one of the men — not the correct answer (it was Sister Mary Beth Antonelli). They erred about who had mastered fencing. It was the "lady in blue," Sister Mary Grace Dateno.

Emma Crowhurst, a student at Our Lady of Grace School in Parkton, said, "It is interesting how these ordinary people became priests and sisters."

Still, Craig said the religious life seemed a little too hard for him to contemplate.

"It just does not seem like a lot of fun," he said.

That attitude shows the kids are thinking, said Sister Nancy Stiles.

"We just want to raise awareness," she said. "We want to get them thinking."

Catholic Church in England conducts review of child safety practices
Irish Examiner - ‎8 hours ago‎
The Roman Catholic Church said it has conducted a full review of child safety practices in the South West of England after a paedophile abuse investigator was jailed for 12 months for child porn offences. Christopher Jarvis (aged 49) a married ... Child porn conviction for ex-Catholic employee
eTaiwan News - ‎9 hours ago‎
AP A former Catholic child safety coordinator has been sentenced in Britain to 12 months in prison for possessing and sharing child pornography. The 49-year-old Christopher Jarvis was sentenced Friday. Police said they found more than 4000 pornographic ...
Roman Catholic church's paedophile investigator jailed for possessing thousnds ...
Daily Mail - ‎9 hours ago‎
A Catholic Church child safety co-ordinator who was in charge of investigating sexual abuse allegations was jailed for 12 months today for internet peadophile offences. Christopher Jarvis, 49, a married father-of-four, ...
Child protection review ordered
BBC News - ‎10 hours ago‎
The Roman Catholic Church has ordered a widespread review into its safeguarding children procedures in the South West. It followed the arrest in March of Christopher Jarvis, 49, who was employed by the Diocese of Plymouth to investigate sex abuse ... Churchman Christopher Jarvis jailed on child sex images
BBC News - ‎11 hours ago‎
A child protection officer for the Roman Catholic Church has been jailed for a year after using his work laptop to collect indecent images of children. Christopher Jarvis, 49, was employed by the Diocese of Plymouth in Devon as a safeguarding ...
Church inquiry after official convicted of paedophilia
Telegraph.co.uk - ‎13 hours ago‎
The Catholic Church is to launch a review of child protection across the South West of England after a religious official investigating child sex abuse allegations was convicted of paedophilia. By Sarah Rainey Christopher Jarvis, a former social worker ... Church child safety official convicted of internet paedophile offences
Mirror.co.uk - ‎22 hours ago‎
A SEX abuse investigator within the Roman Catholic church has been convicted of internet paedophile offences, it emerged last night. Chris Jarvis will be sentenced today for possessing 4000 images of children ... Church worker jailed over images
Grantham Today - ‎8 hours ago‎
A Devon-based Catholic Church child safety co-ordinator has been jailed for 12 months for possessing and sharing child pornography with other perverts. Christopher Jarvis, 49, a married father-of-four, was employed by the church in 2002 and ...
Catholic Church Child Safety Official Convicted of Internet Paedophile Offences
IBTimes - ‎13 hours ago‎
A sex abuse investigator for the Roman Catholic Church in England has been convicted of Internet paedophile offences, it emerged Thursday night. Chris Jarvis, the former child safeguarding officer for the ...
Catholic Church Man Jailed Over Child Porn
Sky News - ‎8 hours ago‎
A Roman Catholic man who worked for the church as a child protection official has been jailed for 12 months for possessing and sharing child pornography. Christopher Jarvis, 49, a married father-of-four, was employed by the church in 2002 to ... Child Porn Conviction For Ex-Catholic Employee
WCBD - ‎8 hours ago‎
By: AP LONDON (AP) A former Catholic child safety coordinator was sentenced to 12 months in prison on Friday for possessing and sharing child pornography, a case that has prompted the church to review child safety arrangements in southwestern England. ...

Catholic bishop orders South West child protection review Jarvis was investigating allegations of abuse at a school run by Buckfast Abbey
The Roman Catholic Church has ordered a widespread review into its safeguarding children procedures in the South West.

It followed the arrest in March of Christopher Jarvis, 49, who was employed by the Diocese of Plymouth to investigate sex abuse allegations.

Jarvis, of Penrose Road, Plymouth, has been jailed for a year after admitting 12 counts involving indecent images.

A Plymouth Crown Court judge said children who had confided in Jarvis would feel "sullied and let down".

Former social worker Jarvis had worked for the diocese - which covers Cornwall, Devon and Dorset - since 2002, checking on volunteers who wanted to work with children.

The father of four was also authorised to counter-sign applications for Criminal Records Bureau checks and he had access to confidential church files on child abuse cases.

As a member of the Devon and Cornwall Multi-agency Safeguarding Team, he also worked with police officers and social services and had access to private information about vulnerable victims of child abuse.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
This particular incident was not a systemic issue in the Roman Catholic Church”
End Quote
David Pond

Independent chairman of the Plymouth Diocesan Safeguarding Commission

The court heard that he was arrested after uploading images of pre-pubescent boys to social networking website and was sacked immediately by the diocese.

Police found more than 4,000 child porn images, mainly of boys aged 10 to 12, on his church-supplied computer and a memory stick when they raided his home.

Twelve images were at Level Five, which can include scenes of torture and sadism.

Jarvis, who the court heard claimed he was abused as a child, admitted 12 counts of making, possessing and distributing indecent images.

'Great shock'

Judge Paul Darlow told him: "Children who had confided in you may feel sullied and let down when they find out the person they were confiding in was downloading images in this way.

"You, of all people, were more aware than others of the massive theft of innocence and long-term damage exacted on the children whose images you downloaded for your own sexual gratification."

The diocese said Jarvis had been conducting an investigation into allegations of historic child abuse at a former preparatory boarding school run by monks at Buckfast Abbey before he was arrested.

Ordained priest William Manahan, 80, was jailed for 15 months in 2007 for sexually abusing boys at Buckfast Abbey Preparatory School between 1971 and 1978. The school later closed.

Bishop Christopher Budd ordered an investigation by the NSPCC after Jarvis was arrested
Another monk at the abbey, Paul Couch, was convicted in 2007 of two serious sexual offences and 11 indecent sexual assaults against boys at the school and was jailed for 10 years and nine months.

Jarvis was removed from the investigation after he was arrested and Bishop Christopher Budd ordered the review by the NSPCC.

The NSPCC has already produced a report into case files which Mr Jarvis was involved with over the last three years.

It said "safeguarding concerns have been appropriately responded to and overall, safeguarding practices are sound".

It has also started the second phase, into child protection procedures, policies and training for the protection of children by the Church in the South West.

The diocese said Jarvis had been checked for criminal records and had worked in social services before working for the diocese.

A spokeswoman said the recommendations from phase one were for "very minor" changes, but declined to say what they were.

A diocese spokeswoman said: "The recommendations are not for huge changes.

"What can you do? He had worked for social services."

She said the second phase would look at "how we do things and how we move forward".

She said: "It's extremely sad for everyone."

David Pond, independent chairman of the Plymouth Diocesan Safeguarding Commission, said Jarvis's crimes had been "a great shock to the many people who had placed their trust in him and worked with him to protect vulnerable children and adults".

He added: "This particular incident was not a systemic issue in the Roman Catholic Church.

"It is about an individual who had got himself into a position of trust."

Predators in plain sight: Priests accused of child abuse appear beyond the ...
CNN (blog)
Sicard found four children at the school, Our Lady of Guadalupe in East LA, who said they'd been abused by Nicolas Aguilar Rivera, a priest who'd recently arrived from Mexico. But police never had a chance to interview Aguilar. ...
See all stories on this topic »

Prosecutors in priest abuse case want to use related records for trial evidence
Newsworks.org
By Shannon McDonald Prosecutors today filed a motion to use additional sexual abuse claims and priest transfers as evidence in the March 2012 trial against three Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests, a teacher and a former monsignor. ...
See all stories on this topic »

Religious order pays $100K to Andover man in abuse case
Eagle Tribune
By Yadira Betances ybetances@eagletribune.com LAWRENCE — The Augustinian Order has paid $100000 in a sexual abuse case involving a priest and a religious brother who served at St. Mary parish in the mid-1960s. According to documents filed at Lawrence ...
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Church to review abuse handling as paedophile investigator is jailed for child ...
Irish Independent
Christopher Jarvis, 49, a married father-of-four, was employed by the church in 2002 as a child safety coordinator following the 2001 Nolan Report on abuse by members of the clergy, with a remit to investigate historic claims of child abuse, ...
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Hundreds of abusive priests who were kicked out of the church have blended ...
God Discussion
These priests have never been held accountable in criminal trials, usually because the statute of limitations has passed before the victims come forward. Even if the priest admitted to the abuse, he cannot go to jail. Boucher says that the church ...
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God Discussion

Many US Catholics have independent streak – survey
Reuters Blogs (blog)
Many expressed doubts about the credibility of the church hierarchy's handling of the clergy sexual abuse crisis, and 7 percent said they personally know of someone who was abused by a priest and 12 percent know a priest accused of abuse.
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Reuters Blogs (blog)

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Reuters Blogs (blog)

Did Bishop Finn deserve indictment?
Catholic Culture
... dozens of American bishops had sheltered priests from prosecution, lied to parishioners about the abusive priests' backgrounds, and assigned priests to parish ministry even after reading fat dossiers, detailing multiple incidents of known abuse. ...
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Web

2 new results for priest abuse

Catholic order pays for Mexican priest's sex abuse - chicagotribune ...
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Legionaries of Christ will pay more than $20000 apiece to at least four victims sexually abused by the order's Mexican founder, ...
www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-us-mexico-priesttre79q75r-20...

Priest is accused of child sex abuse - SNAP
Two-three clergy abuse victims who belong to an international support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork. org) ...
www.snapnetwork.org/priest_is_accused_of_child_sex_abuse
Sound Off! Comments
Posted by: AgnesDay - Today 12:39 PM ET USA
Let's not forget that from the beginning, saints have been purified by trial. This is to build humility into holiness. Let's pray for Bishop Finn and all bishops.

Posted by: dfp3234574 - Today 11:18 AM ET USA
More evidence that Bishop Finn was unfairly targeted: According to a letter by the parish school's principal, Ratigan was at the school "every day for long periods of time." The letter also outlined many pages of "inappropriate conduct with children." Under Missouri law, the principal and teachers were REQUIRED to report potential abuse to police! Yet the prosecutor has given a PASS to the very individuals who saw him "every day"; yet she went after the "big fish" who probably saw him 2-3x/year.

Posted by: cincinnatus - Today 10:37 AM ET USA
Two points, Phil: 1. Your opinion on what Bp. Finn SHOULD have done is, salva amicitia, no more than that, particularly when you don't back it up with any analysis of the appplicable internal Church procedures. Without that analysis, you could just as easily have said that all internal procedures were complied with. Righteous (possibly) indignation is not nearly as effective demonstrated analytical rigor. 2. Ever heard the lawyer's maxim that "a determined DA could indict a ham sandwich"?

Posted by: GymK - Today 1:37 AM ET USA
"Now we learn that an American bishop … was still ignoring the rules, still handling an accusation informally." You said it! Enough is enough! If parents can no longer trust our Bishops to protect the children in their care, let the police handle it. And please stop using the worn out canard about "how much good he has done in the past..." It doesn't matter. These men must wake up and take responsibility for their actions and be responsible to the people they (are supposed to) serve.

Posted by: jimgrum697380 - Oct. 28, 2011 8:58 PM ET USA
While this is not among the most egregious of cases by a long shot, and Bishop Finn has done much good in other areas, it is true that the case cannot be handled lightly. It seems that Bishop Finn violated his own policies in this case, and his inability to be appropriately sensitive not only to the moral consequences but to the political consequences of insufficient action to protect the innocent is disturbing. It's a shame no matter how you look at it.

Earn your degree in as little as 18 mos. Fin. Aid. avail. for those who qualify.

www.healthcare-colleges.org

A priest who has spent almost four decades working in metro Detroit was placed on paid administrative leave as the result of an allegation of sexual misconduct.

Parishioners at St. Sylvester Catholic Church in Warren were told during the weekend that the Rev. Gary Schulte -- their pastor of 17 years -- is restricted from public ministry by the Archdiocese of Detroit.

The archdiocese received an allegation of sexual misconduct involving a male under the age of 18 from its victim assistance coordinator in September and placed Schulte, 66, on leave Friday, said Ned McGrath, spokesman for the archdiocese.

The archdiocese reported the accusation to the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office in September, McGrath said.

The Free Press left messages for Schulte, but was unable to reach him.

McGrath said the archdiocese found the complaint to be sufficient to warrant the restrictions, and its investigation continues.

"We have not made a decision of guilt," he said.

Gail Schulte, the priest's sister, said Sunday that she is very close to her brother and doesn't believe the allegation is true.

"The people that know him, and his friends, they don't believe it, either," said Gail Schulte of Rochester Hills.

"He's a good person, and he would never do something like that."

Schulte is not allowed to celebrate mass or sacraments or present himself as a priest publicly, and has moved out of the rectory, the archdiocese said Sunday.

Church officials said the allegation dated to the early years of Schulte's ministry.

He was ordained a priest of the Detroit archdiocese in 1972, according to information posted on the archdiocese's website, and has worked in Clawson, Beverly Hills, Warren, Royal Oak and Madison Heights.

Church officials did not give any other details about the incident report or the alleged victim.

A critic of the church's handling of abuse cases said Sunday that the archdiocesan investigation took too long.

During the last decade, the Catholic Church has come under scrutiny as reports surfaced of priests committing sexual abuse of minors, forcing it to make settlements.

The Archdiocese of Detroit has said it is committed to weeding out any bad priests.

"It shouldn't take a month to determine whether an allegation is credible," David Clohessy, national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said from St. Louis.

People with complaints involving sexual abuse can contact the Archdiocese of Detroit victim assistance coordinator at 866-343-8055.

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askmewhatithink

3:51 AM on October 31, 2011

Surprise?

2 replies

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Score: -9

jd2011

6:28 AM on October 31, 2011

It shocks me that they would have needed any of investigation to prove the allegation.....just one look at his photo says it all....

3 replies

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Score: 1

boekenhoutskloof

7:19 AM on October 31, 2011

How come the Freep didn't re-tread the story of the Ferndale "school employee" who played binkie with an underage student two days in a row?

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Score: 5

zeke2112

7:47 AM on October 31, 2011

What this SHOULD read: Warren priest arrested for criminal sexual assault against a child.

Gotta love religion and the religious! Nothing like a spiritual "get out of jail free" card.

10 replies

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Score: -1

CTguy33

8:21 AM on October 31, 2011

But, since it's the Catholic church and they're somehow above the law, he'll get a slap on the wrist and be allowed to go back to his church next week.

5 replies

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Score: 2

lovedetroit10

8:37 AM on October 31, 2011

Hmmmm, lets see here. Let’s have a job that only hires people that can never be married, never have sexual relations with the opposite sex, can’t be openly gay, and can’t be a woman. I wonder what type of candidates are you going to get for that job.
Religion is just outdated and the people that preach it the hardest should usually be second guessed. Note to the Republican wacko’s that tie religion to their policies.

4 replies

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jeffjeffjeff

9:14 AM on October 31, 2011

"He was ordained a priest of the Detroit archdiocese in 1972, according to information posted on the archdiocese's website, and has worked in Clawson, Beverly Hills, Warren, Royal Oak and Madison Heights."

Ahhh, so there are victims all over metro Detroit. This guy was spreading the word as far and wide as he could, it looks like...

1 reply

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JohnnyC13

9:24 AM on October 31, 2011

For all you people who are saying what a sick man he is, your all jumping the gun hear. He was my childhood priest, I went to St. Vincents school and church. He was nothing but a nice man to all of my friends and family. You should all be ashamed of your selves. Yea granted most of the cases are true, well not this one. He never ONCE made any move on anyone I knew!

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NovemberVoter

9:51 AM on October 31, 2011

The Free Press killed its article and comments from last night. So, I will repost my comment here...

While web surfing a few years ago about some information about my Catholic parochial school and parish--Saint John de Nepomuc--in Milwaukee, I came up with a document that described sexual abuse there that seemingly began several years after I left the eighth grade. It listed a couple pedophile priests and one lay teacher. This is the document that described sexual abuse in Milwaukee parochial schools in detail: http://terrenceberres.com/ise-sex.html

Little did I know before tonight that there were four other perverted priests in that (closed since 1985) parish school--until I came across this document-- http://www.milwaukeesexabuse.com/ , which listed all six priests who were suspected pedophiles at that parish, of which two were also present there during my eight years in school attendance then.

I probably should have suspected them, as one was quite a fem, but the other was very popular with us students--being quite an athlete, having played third base in the Chicago Cubs farm system and was also a firefighter. Father George Hopf could hit a softball some 400 feet in the air...

YES AMERICA ... you are being quietly groomed to accept ALL cultures ... its called GLOBALISM ... GLOBALIST AMERICAN corporations are the main carriers and promoters of this sickness ...

(Alas, more sensitive toes have been injured by mere TRUTH ... PLEASE pour on the "THUMBS DOWN" vote punishments in great haste ... THANK YOU! ... I pledge to count them all.)

2 replies

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shodney

11:10 AM on October 31, 2011

If this Priest is guilty, put him in the 'comfort station'....A couple weekends in the 'comfort station' with or without
oak bite bar, televised so other pediphiles can see what's ahead for them....might be a deterent... Someone please
explain to me how a Priest, could not know what kind of luggage he is putting on young choir boys which they
have to carry with them for the rest of their lives.....Is this not beyond evil....how do these guys look at themselves
and carry on with repeating the sacraments at mass and not know that they have scarred a young boy for life..THIS
IS EVIL ON STILTS......

Score: -3

Alice2theMoon

11:52 AM on October 31, 2011

One look and two words were all I need to convict this freak.
Good ol' catholism, shhh! Just show up on Sunday, fill the plate and you're ticket to skyland is guarunteed!

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Score: 1

stillangry

1:06 PM on October 31, 2011

I have one quetion, why did it take the alleged victim so long to report it? This man has bee a priest for 40 years and it was early in his career. Why so long? This person is an adult now, the priest is not using intimidation that he could with a child, why so long? Everyone is asking why the church learned about in September and took a month to investigate but no one is asking about the alleged victim's time frame.
It is sad thing that in every walk of life there are perverts and nasty people but in the same token this crime once alleged, the person is guity even when they are proven not to be. The accusation leaves a large footprint on a person. With that being said please let this person or any accused (especially after 40 years) of this crime have their day in court. If found guilty no punishment is good enough. Also keep in mind because this crime leaves a mark, some supposed victims will use this to get back at someone. It ruins their life forever guilty or not.

3 replies

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Score: -1

joegillis

1:31 PM on October 31, 2011

Commenting on the earlier Freep article re: this story:

"We're not talking about a minor — not a prepubescent male," said Joe Kohn, spokesman for the Detroit Archdiocese."

First, you'll excuse me if I don't trust what ANY spokesman for the Catholic church has to say about these sorts of matters. Also, his wording is interesting -- "not a prepubescent male." The Catholic church has defended itself (and its priests) in the past by separating the term "pedophilia" from the term "ephebophilia." Ephebophilia refers to attraction by an adult for a boy or girl of roughly 13 to 17. Pedophilia refers to attraction by an adult for a boy or girl of roughly 12/13 and younger.

When I first heard of this "defense" some years ago (I'd never heard of the word "ephebophilia"), I was disgusted at the Catholic church's attempts to mitigate its crimes -- looking the other way; constantly shuffling "bad" priests from one diocese to another. What the church seems to miss is that ephebophilia is a crime as well, seeing as the boys or girls in question are still too young to be of legal age.

The Catholic church may think that it only has to answer to its Higher Law. The truth is, it should be forced to answer to the laws of this country.

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Newbie2

2:37 PM on October 31, 2011

There's a book out there "Before Dallas" which provides, without trying to excuse the behavior or the coverups that have happened, an account of "how" something like this could have happened over the years. Good read.

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j-lpryor090502035537

4:49 PM on October 31, 2011

The Priest , if guilty , has broken a U.S. Law and HAS TO BE TRIED BY THE U.S.Courts and NOT ANY RELIGIOUS COURT !!! He may have broken our U.S. Laws .. Where is our County and State Prosecutor ??????

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northofdabridge

5:27 PM on October 31, 2011

If only they would have handled such reports like this 30-40 years ago instead of just moving priests around. Maybe they are finally getting it?

A US-based Filipino priest who was caught with child pornography in his computer disappeared before he could go on trial and is suspected to be hiding in the Philippines.

Rev. Lowe B. Dongor Photo from www.worcesterdiocese.orgCatholic officials in the United States warned the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) about the status of Rev. Lowe B. Dongor who was suspended from his ministry over charges of theft and possession of pornographic materials.

According to a report on the CBCP website on Monday, Most Rev. Robert McManus of Worcester diocese in Massachusetts told the CBCP that Dongor was scheduled to go on trial last October 25 but disappeared from the diocese before he could appear in court in the US.

In a letter dated October 13, McManus informed CBCP president and Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar in a letter that Dongor might be in the Philippines.

McManus said Dongor left a note saying that he was returning "home."

“I presume that he meant the Philippines," McManus said.

Because of the charges against him, Dongor has been removed from active ministry. Dongor was an associate pastor of St. Joseph's Parish in Worcester, Massachussetts.

He was also prohibited from wearing clerical attire or presenting himself publicly as a priest.

“I bring this matter to Your Excellency’s attention in case Father Dongor presents himself to Bishops in the arch/dioceses of the Philippines as a priest in good canonical standing," McManus wrote to Odchimar.

“Obviously this is not the case," McManus added.

In his letter, McManus cited that on May 3 this year, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith declared that “the acquisition, possession and distribution of child pornography is a canonical delict that pertains to the sexual abuse of a minor."

The CBCP said diocesan records revealed that Dongor was born on February 17, 1976 in Iloilo, Philippines and attended Barotac Nuevo High School, graduating in 1993.

Dongor was ordained to the priesthood on June 2, 2010.

Under investigation

According to a report of the Telegram.com, Dongor — the Diocese of Worcester's first Filipino priest — was arraigned in Fitchburg District Court on September 12 this year on charges of possessing child pornography and stealing from the parish.

The Telegram said images of child pornography were found in his laptop by an independent computer service, which notified police.

The report notes that court documents state the images depicted prepubescent girls in various states of undress.

Dongor was released on the condition that he would not use computers or have unsupervised contact with children under 14.

Dongor had been placed on administrative leave of absence since July, although the diocese claimed no complaints were received about him. - with Carmela Lapeña, VVP/HS, GMA News
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A southwest Missouri man filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing three Roman Catholic priests of sexually abusing him in the early 1980s when he was between the ages of 9 and 12.

Joe Eldred, who lives in the Springfield area, alleged abuse by Monsignor Thomas J. O’Brien, a retired priest in the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese; the Rev. Mark Honhart, who left the diocese in 2001; and Thomas Reardon, who left the diocese and ministry in 1989.

Eldred, 40, filed the lawsuit in Jackson County Circuit Court. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, also alleges that diocesan leaders knew about the sexual misconduct but covered it up.

“Today I am a grieving man,” said Eldred, surrounded by two dozen friends, family members and former classmates at a news conference outside the diocesan headquarters. “I grieve for the boy I was and the innocence that was lost at the hands of men my family and I trusted who abused their position of religious authority.”

According to the lawsuit, most of the abuse occurred at Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary parish, where Eldred attended grade school, and at Lake Viking, a community about 60 miles northeast of Kansas City. The lawsuit alleges O’Brien and Reardon took Eldred to Lake Viking between 1981 and 1984, plying him with drugs and alcohol and abusing him in a car and at the lake house. The lawsuit also alleges that from about 1980 to 1984, Honhart sexually abused Eldred.

Eldred, who works at a Christian home for youth, said he had repressed the memories of the abuse and that they began resurfacing earlier this year.

He attempted to commit suicide on several occasions because of the abuse, the lawsuit alleges.

O’Brien, Reardon and Honhart could not be reached for comment. The diocese said in a statement that “over the past 27 years, neither Joe Eldred nor anyone acting on his behalf ever made contact with the diocese to report the abuse.”

O’Brien has been retired from parish ministry since 1984, the diocese said, and has been restricted permanently from representing himself as a member of the clergy since 2002.

Honhart worked in six parishes in the diocese from 1980 to 2001, the diocese said. He most recently served in the Diocese of Scranton in Pennsylvania, but officials there removed him from ministry in February after receiving an allegation of sexual misconduct. The diocese said that “over the 21-year period of Father Honhart’s ministry in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, there were no complaints of sexual misconduct brought to the attention of his superiors.”

Reardon was assigned to five parishes over 22 years, the diocese said, and left the ministry in 1989. The diocese said it is in the process of formally removing him from the priesthood through church courts.

“Through a public liaison and ombudsman, the diocese has made in known that it will respond to all allegations of abuse,” the diocese said.

O’Brien and Reardon have been named in dozens of sexual abuse lawsuits in recent years. Tuesday’s lawsuit is the third to be filed against Honhart.

During the news conference, two women stood nearby and recited the rosary.

“I’m a Bishop (Robert) Finn supporter,” said Katy Christy of Grandview, who also attended grade school at Nativity. “We’re here to pray for the support of Bishop (Robert) Finn and for all the victims.”

SHARING! ... So we have 10,000 victims who have come forward! e.g. probably 100,000+ who havent!
How many priests do we have in jail? Hopefully we are putting them on SEX OFFENDER lists because Pedophilia is both a crime and an incurable illness! Where are the families of these 10,000? Why arent they shouting and screaming? Wake Up! 1

Keith Smith 1p · 10 hours ago

Sometimes the perp ends up dead.

My name is Keith Smith. In 1974, at the age of 14, I was abducted, beaten and raped by a pedophile predator in my home town of Lincoln, Rhode Island. Although he was arrested and indicted, he never went to trial. He never went to trial because he was brutally beaten to death in the streets of Providence before his court date. 36 years later, no one has ever been charged with the crime. Someone got away with murder.

SNAP protests priest's placement
Chicago Sun-Times
Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, and SNAP member Barbara Meyer held up childhood photos of abuse victims as they criticized the recent appointment of the Rev. Jeffery Salwach to the LaVerna Friary in St. ...
See all stories on this topic »

NL archbishop aware of abuse by priest, court documents say
Vancouver Sun
Leaders within the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland and Labrador were aware of the sexual abuse of boys by Father James Hickey as early as 1980, according to evidence brought forward in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador. ST. ...
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A Donegal diocese awaits report on abuse
Irish Echo
Derek Mulligan, a victim who went public with complaints against the clergy, said that there were many more priests involved than those named in the report. He said the priest who abused him will not be named, and that he knows scores of victims who ...
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NL Archbishop told about sexual abuse in 1980: court documents
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In 1989, Penney told CBC's Rex Murphy that he could not understand how abuse by priests went on for so long without church leaders knowing about it "It's a great mystery to me how such a thing could go on for so long without somebody blowing the ...

The Morris County prosecutor on Wednesday tried to dispel defense suggestions that slain Rev. Edward Hinds attempted to protect or engage in a “cover-up” of the past of the man who allegedly murdered him, former St. Patrick Church custodian Jose Feliciano.

Jeannine Sorrentino, an administrative assistant for nine years at St. Patrick’s in Chatham, spent hours on the witness stand in state Superior Court, Morristown, testifying at the trial of Feliciano, 66, who is charged with fatally stabbing the 61-year-old Hinds on Oct. 22, 2009, in the rectory.

While prosecutors still are presenting their case, Sorrentino was called as an out-of-turn witness by defense lawyer Neill Hamilton, but her testimony was largely beneficial to the prosecution. The state contends that the priest learned in the fall of 2009 that Feliciano had not gone through mandated background checks, was hiding a criminal past, and intended to fire him.

Hamilton suggested in his trial opening that the priest and custodian had a sordid relationship and that Hinds deliberately did not forward Feliciano’s fingerprints to the State Police so that a background check could be completed. Jurors have not been told, but Feliciano confessed to a detective that he wanted to end a homosexual relationship with the priest. He claimed the priest threatened to fire him if their intimacy ended and he reacted in a homicidal rage.

In the end, jurors will have to decide whether Feliciano stabbed the priest 32 times in a deliberate act of murder or in the throes of passion//provocation, a lesser form of homicide.

On Wednesday, county Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi elicited from Sorrentino that Hinds was not in control of employee files and did not have access to a website that indicated whether parish volunteers and employees with contact with children had completed background checks and special training.

Just before he was killed, Hinds was in the process of preparing for an upcoming audit on whether all employees and volunteers were in compliance with a church-mandated program called Protecting God’s Children. That program was implemented by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops in response to sexual abuse cases involving priests and children.

Sorrentino testified that she noticed in the fall of 2009 that Feliciano was fingerprinted at some point but his prints were never checked out so she brought the fingerprint card to Hinds’ attention.

“Father Ed said ‘I’ll look into it. I’ll take care of it,’ ’’ she said. She later clarified that Hinds could not have done anything with the aged, inked impressions on the card she gave him because, by the fall of 2009, employees were required to get their fingerprints scanned at a company in Parsippany.

“There’s been a suggestion of a cover-up if you will,” Bianchi asked Sorrentino. She called Hinds “brilliant,” committed to the Protecting God’s Children program and said that Hinds couldn’t have been part of a “cover-up” of Feliciano’s failure to go through full background checks because he lacked access to all necessary records.

46-year-old German Catholic priest has been indicted on 267 counts of sexual contact with children in the town of Salzgitter where he ran a parish, according to BNO News.

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Pope: Sex Scandal Arises from 'Sin Within' Church

The priest, who was unnamed, is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting three boys between the ages of 5 and 9 since 2004.

Blame is being directed toward church officials for not taking action after learning that the priest spent the night with a boy in his bed, but the Diocese of Hildesheim said it did not realize what was happening because no allegations of sexual misconduct had been brought forth at that time.

The priest was later arrested after the boy's family complained, and he was ordered not to have any further contact with the boy.

Prosecutors said the man has confessed to the charges and was being evaluated by a psychologist.

The priest has been in pre-trial custody since July, but no date has yet been set for the trial.

The Catholic Church has a long history of church officials coming under fire for allegations of sex crimes committed against children. While the United States has had the highest number of reported cases, other countries where the issue has become widespread include Ireland, Australia, Canada, and parts of Europe.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI was implicated in an alleged cover-up of a Wisconsin sex abuse scandal that occurred when he served as a cardinal in 1996. It is estimated that the priest the Pope Benedict XVI and other Vatican officials allegedly protected molested over 200 deaf boys.

The Catholic Church in Germany has also faced a series of allegations within the past year of sexual abuse as well as brutal corporal punishments being carried out by clergy on children within the past 60 years.

The church has issued "financial compensation to hundreds of victims," according to BNO News.

Padilla, who claims to be a victim of child sex abuse, announces a lawsuit against child sex abuse, in downtown Kansas City, Missouri (DAVE KAUP, REUTERS / November 3, 2011)

Carey Gillam

Reuters

4:48 p.m. CDT, November 3, 2011

KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) - A Missouri man lodged a sexual molestation lawsuit against Catholic leaders in Kansas City on Thursday, adding to a long list of allegations that high-ranking clerics in the area have covered up child abuse by priests.

The petition filed on Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court said that 48-year-old Gilbert Padilla, a former altar boy, was molested repeatedly by two priests in the 1970s when he was a student at a Kansas City-area Catholic school.

The lawsuit, the latest in a series of suits in the Kansas City area over alleged misdeeds of priests, names as defendants Bishop Joseph Hart and Father Thomas O'Brien, both retired.

The suit also names the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and, as its representative, Bishop Robert Finn, who currently leads the diocese.

Finn was indicted last month on charges that he failed to promptly report pornography on the computer of a priest, Shawn Ratigan, later indicted on 13 counts of child pornography in a case that roiled Kansas City's Catholic community. Both men have pleaded not guilty.

The diocese has over the years faced lawsuits from scores of people who claimed to be sexually abused by priests, mostly in the 1950s through early 1970s. Bishops have been faulted by victims and their lawyers for failing to take action to stop the abuse and to remove priests.

Attorneys for the defendants in Thursday's case did not immediately return calls seeking comment, nor did the diocese. O'Brien has previously denied separate sexual abuse allegations.

Padilla, in Thursday's lawsuit, said the abuse began when he was about 7 years old after years of regular attendance by his devoutly Catholic family at weekly mass.

He served as an altar boy and attended a Catholic school where he frequently helped the priests with work on campus or at the church rectory, the lawsuit said.

The suit said the two priests, who were friends, would frequently take him out of class, molest him, show him pornography and offer him drugs and alcohol to try to get him to engage in sexual activity.

When he was in the eighth grade, Padilla reported the abuse to the principal of the Catholic school. But he said she declined to pursue the matter and told him the priests were "men of God," the lawsuit said.

Padilla said the abuse ended when he stopped doing his school work and was eventually kicked out of the Catholic school. The lawsuit also said many more children were abused because of the church's refusal to investigate Padilla's allegations.

In a press conference on Thursday, attended by other abuse victims who have also filed lawsuits, Padilla said he hoped his case and others would bring change in the Catholic Church.

"I want it stopped so there is no more covering up," Padilla said.

(Reporting by Carey Gillam; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
Priest named in two more abuse cases against Archdiocese of Miami
Comments 1Share9
By Perry Stein, The Miami Herald

9:27 p.m. EDT, November 3, 2011
Two more alleged victims have filed negligence suits against the Archdiocese of Miami saying that the Rev. Neil Doherty — who has a long list of accusers — drugged and raped them when they were boys and that the archdiocese tried to cover up his abuse.

Doherty, 69, is in prison awaiting trial on a charge of sexually assaulting a minor in Broward County.

The two new allegations made public Thursday now brings the number of civil cases against the archdiocese naming Doherty as the abuser to at least 26, making him the worst accused sexual predator in the archdiocese's history.

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Hollywood (Broward, Florida) "I kept it inside," said Benjamin Fisher, 50, speaking at a news conference in front of the Cathedral of St. Mary's in Miami — where he claims Doherty first abused him. "I kept it a secret; it's not easy to come here and do what I'm doing."

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Fisher's suit claims the abuse began when he was 16 and lasted for five years. He is seeking compensation from the archdiocese in excess of $5 million.

The other victim has not come forward publicly. According to court documents, he was 9 years old when the alleged abuse started.

The archdiocese released a statement Thursday saying that the matter has been referred to the state attorney's office and that it will be conducting an internal investigation. Mary Ross Agosta, the archdiocese spokeswoman, said the archdiocese had not yet reviewed the lawsuits and would not comment beyond the issued statement.

Jessica Arbour, one of the attorneys representing the two plaintiffs, said she has asked the archdiocese to release the names of all priests who have had allegations of sexual abuse lodged against them. She said there have been 35 priests publicly accused of sexual abuse of minors since the Archdiocese of Miami was founded in 1957.

Both suits say the archdiocese knew of Doherty's history, but put him in positions where he could continue to abuse in later years.

According to the lawsuits, Doherty's supervising pastor in 1972 reported to the archdiocese that Doherty "legally adopted" a young teen who often slept with him in his bed. The archdiocese did not investigate, and transferred Doherty out of the parish, saying that he was unable to get along the with the pastor.

Seven years later, archdiocese officials reportedly received a complaint that Doherty drugged and molested an unidentified 16-year-old boy who was being treated in a mental hospital. Again, the suit says the archdiocese did not investigate and concealed the report in a "secret file" that only the archbishop and his designees could access.

"He viewed his [clerical] collar as a license to abuse people," Arbour said.

In the early 1990s, then-Archbishop Edward McCarthy ordered an investigation, including a mental health evaluation of Doherty. The evaluator recommended that Doherty be temporarily suspended, but it did not happen.

In 2003, in a memorandum, a sex-crimes prosecutor in the Broward State Attorney's office disclosed to the archdiocese a $50,000 settlement in 1994 with a student enrolled at Chaminade High School in Hollywood.

The archdiocese did not notify authorities about the matter until later, according to the prosecutor's memo. Doherty was placed on leave and voluntarily retired in 2004.

A former Los Angeles Roman Catholic priest who was convicted of the sexual abuse of two boys was arrested in Orange County on a parole violation just weeks after his release, police said Thursday.

Police officers in Costa Mesa assisted a parole agent in the arrest of Michael Baker in the city Wednesday, Costa Mesa police Sgt. Stephanie Selinske said.

It was not clear how Baker violated parole, and Selinske had no further details.

The former priest pleaded guilty in 2007 to 12 felony counts related to the abuse of two boys he met at parishes in Pico Rivera and Los Angeles.

Baker served more than five years of a 10-year prison sentence for the conviction and was scheduled to be released in August. He was released from custody last month after Los Angeles County prosecutors dropped a bid to keep him locked up indefinitely in a mental hospital by designating him as a sexually violent predator. His parole region includes Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Imperial counties.

Baker's case seriously tarnished the reputation of then-Cardinal Roger Mahony, who said Baker told him at a retreat in 1986 that he had molested two young boys. Mahony said he didn't alert anyone because the priest told him the children were illegal immigrants who had returned to Mexico.

When the Los Angeles archdiocese settled its abuse cases for a record-breaking $660 million in 2007, lead plaintiff attorney Ray Boucher estimated that Baker's conduct accounted for $40 million of the total.

The two boys whose allegations led to the criminal case received a $1.2 million settlement.

Baker was initially charged with 34 counts of molestation involving six victims.

Those charges were dismissed in 2003 after the U.S. Supreme Court voided a California law that allowed the prosecution of cases involving acts that occurred before 1988.

However, allegations by the two boys and one other man allowed prosecutors to file charges against Baker that were within the statute of limitations.

In January 2006, the former priest was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport as he returned from a vacation in Thailand. He was later sentenced to more than 10 years in prison, but was released early due to time served while awaiting trial and credits for good behavior.

"As always, the Catholic Church’s concerns are for the victims and a prevailing sense of justice and healing," Agosta said. "Over these past ten years, the Archdiocese has been forthcoming and taken steps to keep children safe through training and background screenings of all its employees, volunteers, clergy and teachers.

The lawsuits were filed on behalf of Benjamin Fisher and a second victim, identified only as John Doe No. 88. Fisher spoke about the alleged abuse at a Thursday news conference outside St. Mary's.

"What this did to me, there are no words," Fisher said. "I'm doing this for all the kids and families who suffered."

Doherty, 68, has been the subject of numerous sex abuse lawsuits and is being held in a Broward County jail for violation of pre-trial release. He faces eight charges, including sexual battery, committing a lewd act in the presence of a child, and lewd or lascivious molestation.

Posted Thursday, Nov 3, 2011 - 1:40 PM EDT

Abuse cases could be settled: lawyer

Alphonsus Penney
Published on November 4, 2011
Published on November 4, 2011
Barb Sweet
The Telegram Topics : Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland and Labrador , Christian Brothers , Supreme Court , Rushoon , Newfoundland and Labrador , Ottawa
There’s nothing new for lawyer Greg Stack in evidence suggesting leaders within the Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland and Labrador were aware of the sexual abuse of boys by Father James Hickey as early as 1980.

But what shocks Stack is that decades after the abuse, civil cases are still being dragged out.

“We are lost as to an explanation why the church continues to foot-drag the outstanding cases. They could settle them. There are not huge amounts involved. They have the cash resources,” Stack said Thursday.

“You would think it would be in their interest to get them all resolved and put behind them and move forward.”

Stack’s firm is handling 15 outstanding civil cases against the Roman Catholic church, most of them involving Hickey.

In September 1988, Hickey pleaded guilty to 20 charges of sexual assault, gross indecency and indecent assault involving teenage boys. He was sentenced to five years in jail, and died in 1992 at the age of 59.

Stack said the church doesn’t seem to be disputing prior knowledge anymore and the cases are down to quantifying damages. He said he believes current Archbishop Martin Currie is genuinely sincere when he expresses the hope the cases will be settled.

But Stack said they are bogged down in legal paper-chasing while clients are robbed of the chance to put the horrific memories and suffering behind them.

“As long as litigation is pending, it’s still an open sore, an open wound,” Stack said.

He said it’s clear a number of church officials had prior knowledge of priests’ abuse across the province.

“There are too many reports and affidavits,” he said.

Geoff Budden, who represents clients who suffered abuse at Mount Cashel orphanage, which was run by the Christian Brothers, said there’s now inconsistency in evidence about when Archbishop Alphonsus Penney may have known about Hickey’s actions, but he said it’s a scenario seen over and over again in abuse cases involving various brothers and priests.

He said that it has come up time and again in cases, that officials knew and did nothing to keep priests from preying on vulnerable parishioners.

“A lot of suffering would have been prevented,” he said.

“In all fairness, we were not hearing these things in 2006 and 2008. Lessons, thankfully, have been learned.”

The evidence about church officials’ knowledge of Hickey’s behaviour was contained in disclosures in the 1990s, but was made public Wednesday after being presented in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador by the insurance company charged with assisting the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s (RCEC) in defending its case in ongoing civil suits involving Hickey.

The insurer, Guardian Insurance Company of Canada, has stated church leaders were aware prior to 1980 of allegations against Hickey and that, specifically, Penney was aware of such allegations as of 1980.

To date, Penney has denied having any such knowledge or recollection of any disclosures about sexual misconduct by Hickey and has previously testified he was not aware of any such problem with Hickey prior to 1987, when criminal charges were laid.

Guardian Insurance insists the church has not been acting in good faith in dealing with the subsequent civil suits.

As evidence, they have pointed to, among several affidavits, a statement made by Randy Joseph Barnes, a former member of the seminary who was in Rushoon while Hickey was posted as priest there.

The statement was collected in interviews conducted by a representative for the insurance company in the early 1990s.

“Barnes stated that, while in Rushoon, he was aware of boys spending evenings at the parish home of James Hickey and that sexual activity was ongoing involving James Hickey. (He) said in his discovery that he had met with Archbishop Penney in or about May of 1980 and disclosed this to him,” states the information from the Supreme Court.

Sylvia MacEachern, a Catholic parishioner in Ottawa who runs a blog and database publicizing clergy sex abuse scandals, said she feels charges should be pursued against Penney for what he knew.

“We expect better of our bishops,” she said.

bsweet@thetelegram.com

Number of views : 2750 RateTop of the page Comments No Longer R.C. - November 4, 2011 at 15:21:14 To: No Religion; Allowing priests to marry would not have helped such individuals as these perverts because they are pedophiles. Also, as YesSir stated, police, RCMP, Government officials, parents, schools, etc., were also at fault that these horrendous offences continued.

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Kieran - November 4, 2011 at 13:51:24 The Roman church has lost all credibility. They deny equal rights to gays and women while innocent children are molested. Even the Pope knew about pedophilia in the church and did nothing about it!! Every Catholic of good conscience should do what I did many years ago: leave the abominable Roman church and become an Anglican!!

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No Religion - November 4, 2011 at 13:42:15 If the Catholic Church would remove the rule of forbidding Priests and others involved in the church to have relationships and marry... Maybe none of this would of ever happened! Not saying that is a good reason for any of them to do what they have done, it's absoluting disgusting... Just putting it out there... Hense why I personally have given up on religious beliefs. Personal relationships are a part of human nature!

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Derrick - November 4, 2011 at 11:22:14 To SR....and to think that people still go to mass to listen to these fools amazes me. How brainwashed are we at all? I gave up going to mass long ago. Just a mental picture of the priests doing what they did to innocent little boys is enough for me to never go again.

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D. Maria Paul - November 4, 2011 at 11:09:50 It is disgraceful how the Roman Catholic Church has handled this volitile issue of sexual abuse. Given the basis of their institution, the teachings of Love and Compassion of Jesus Christ, it comprimises the beliefs many Catholics hold dear. The shame that pedofiles, within the institution, have brought upon those priests who are genuinely spiritual and true to their faith has only been magnified by Rome's neglect and refusal to deal efffectively with these horrific crimes against it's children. What is it Jesus said, to the effect: "if you harm one of these...it is better you have a stone around your neck and be tossed in the sea". Yet, the church chooses to support these vile acts against the most vulnerable. And they wonder why people are leaving this institution in droves. The Roman Catholic Church needs to practice its own teachings.

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SR - November 4, 2011 at 10:14:43 The Catholic church would turn your stomach!! Makes me sick.. I'm ashamed to say I'm catholic for reasons like this. Shut the church down and give the money they have stashed away to all the people who's lives they have destroyed by their selfish behaviour. Every other day it's something new with a preist or church... give me a break... the church is a disgrace.. I wouldnt even let a Catholic preist marry me after what they did to other innocent families, nor will I let the Catholic church be a part of my children's lives.... the church should be banished!! Signed ~ Sick to death of hearing about what the Catholic church did to so many innocent people!!

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Ex-Catholic - November 4, 2011 at 11:10:56 Me tooo ashamed. As a child I reported what I heard about one priest and got grounded since he lied about that too when confronted. My family too was abused by this socalled religion. They should shut the doors and burn all the RC churches and give victims a front row seat to watch. To all the victims-live for today knowing that you have people like us wishing you all the best in your future. Chatabout it with anyone who will listen because it will help knowing that someone is willing to listen. This way it will never be forgotten-lest we forget!
yessir - November 4, 2011 at 11:27:29 Lets not stop there. We should banish the police and government for their participation in this disgusting piece of history. We should also ban all the schools and parent that knew about this and turned a blind eye. With so many people involved in this conspiracy you know the Telegram knew or should have known of what was going on and they stayed silent, ban them too. How many more things have happened and are still going on that these groups are still participating in.
NOTRIGHT - November 4, 2011 at 13:49:08 Its the individuals how did these things and covered them up not the church. Do we blame all of the RC?
CDF official addresses international conference on child abuse

November 04, 2011

Recognizing that children are a gift from God is “the true basis of prevention of child abuse,” the promoter of justice of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said at an international forum on child abuse.

“The Catholic Church knows well that whenever one of its ministers, whether bishop, priest or deacon, or lay pastoral agent, sexually abuses a minor, a tragic wound is inflicted on the community, subordinated at it is by the indescribably repugnant damage done to the child,” said Msgr. Charles Scicluna. “Such conduct is reproachable on various counts.”

He added:

Most importantly, it inflicts untold damage to the normal sexual development, self-esteem and human dignity of the minor concerned; it is cause of scandal to Christians and non-Christians alike, a stumbling-block on many a pilgrim’s progress in faith; it invariably constitutes an abuse and a betrayal of the sacred trust which the people of God rightly have of their shepherds; it damages the credibility of the Church and taints the beauty of Her testimony to the Gospel of Jesus Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life; it discredits the ministerial priesthood and puts countless innocent clerics and pastoral agents under the shadow of delinquency, crime and misdemeanor.

markus Yesterday 11:21 PM

I am really saddened not only for what this priest had done but also for the great negative consecuences this kind of action would produce not only to the Church, to his victims but more importantly those Catholics who are now suffering crissis as to whether Her church is really the body of Christ and the real means of salvation.

I hope that the CBCP may implement the new ruling ( canonical) regarding those Priest who have committed unfaithfulness to his ministry. I pray that the Bishops may exert more effort in their sealness in helping produce ministers who shall with serve the peolpe of God with their whole heart.

However, the Catholic Church remains to be holy in Herself, for Her holiness comes from the santity of Hes founder, Jesus Christ. Her holiness does not depends on Her member. The Catholic Church is made up of sinnners, like me, and saints like those Priest and lay faithful who are dedicating their lives in the service of the faithful.

We should make sure that justice is done for the family of the victims and at the same time, pray that the Lord may continue to send us laborers to his vine yard.

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Two Tenn Yesterday 10:59 PM

California
Jesuit abuser priest from the Philippines may be back in the Philippines

Fr. Angel Crisostomo Mariano, a native of the Philippines, was one of six
Jesuits caught up in a Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal. As many as
six Jesuits allegedly abused two retarded lifetime employees of the Jesuit
Order at the Jesuit retirement home in Los Gatos, California. The Jesuit Order
avoided a trial by agreeing to pay $7 million.

Unlike the other Jesuits in the $7 million case, Fr. Mariano was convicted in
an additional sex abuse case.

Mariano left his parish of 4,500 families in East San Jose, California after
being arrested for having sex with a 17-year-old boy he met in an Internet chat
room where Mariano posed as a woman. Mariano was convicted six months later on
two felony counts of oral sex with a minor and spent five months in Santa Clara
County Jail.

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Iggy_Ramirez Yesterday 09:34 PM

"In possession of pictures in his laptop of young girls around the ages of 10 and 11 in various stages of undressing."

While it is getting harder to get child p0rnography these days, there are various ways of storing precious illicit media. One is by getting an account in one of the file servers (filesonic, mediafire, rapidshare, wupload, etc). Encrypt or compress and password-protect them. And if ever the need arises, download them or better yet, just preview them, and erase any trace of the files that have been viewed. These are only pictures so we do not really expect them to be full HD, studio-grade shots that will consume huge storage spaces.

It seems, father Dongor is really not as smart as we would expect our priests to be.

So many perverts, homosexuals, rapists, criminals in robes. The Catholic church should examine itself where it erred and punish the guilty otherwise it could not present itself as an example of godliness.

The Archdiocese of Jaro asked members of the clergy to be on the lookout for Fr. Lowe Dongor, who was born in Iloilo and was assigned to the Diocese of Worcester in Massachusetts.

Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo issued a circular on

Oct. 26 to issue a warning against clergy members dealing with Dongor.

Lagdameo said the Jaro Archdiocese adopted the decision of the Diocese of Worcester to prohibit Dongor from wearing priest attire and performing functions as a priest.

Dongor, 35, a native of Barotac Nuevo, a town 30 km northeast of Iloilo City, left Worcester without permission while awaiting trial on charges of theft and possession of materials on child pornography, according to Worcester Bishop Robert

McManus in a letter to Archbishop Nereo Odchimar, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Dongor has reportedly been seen in his hometown last week and has even officiated Mass.

In his letter dated Oct. 13, McManus said Dongor was removed from Worcester pending his trial.

“I removed Father Dongor from active ministry and informed him that he could not wear clerical attire or present himself publicly as a priest,” McManus said in his letter.

He said that based on a position of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the “acquisition, possession and distribution of child pornography is a canonical delict that pertains to the sexual abuse of a minor.”

The letter did not provide further details of the accusations against Dongor.

But according to a Sept. 19 report of the Catholic Free Press on the Internet, Dongor, former associate pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish, was arraigned on Sept. 13 in the Fitchburg District Court on charges of possession of child pornographic materials, theft of more than $250 and other charges.

“He is accused of having pictures on his laptop of girls around the ages of 10 and 11 in various stages of undress. He also is accused of having stolen $40 or $50 on several occasions from the parish office, according to police reports,” the report said.

It said Dongor was removed from his ministry in July by McManus “after financial improprieties were discovered at the parish.”

McManus said in his letter to the CBCP that Dongor “fled” the diocese before his Oct. 25 trial. He left a note saying he was returning “home” which McManus presumed was the Philippines.

“I bring this matter to your excellency’s attention in case Father Dongor presents himself to bishops in the archdioceses or dioceses of the Philippines as a priest in good canonical standing. Obviously this is not the case,” McManus said.

German Catholic Bishops Selling Porn

| Print |

Written by R. Cort Kirkwood

Thursday, 03 November 2011 16:11

2

Sexual corruption in the Catholic priesthood goes even deeper than anyone thought. Yet while the scandal of homosexual priests molesting teenage boys has nearly bankrupted some parishes in the United States, the sexual perversion in Germany is making the German bishops a mint.

LifeSiteNews.com reported early this week that the German episcopacy is peddling pornography and satanism through a major publisher it owns.

Even worse, the bishops can’t claim they didn’t know what the publisher sells. Concerned lay persons have been trying to stop it for at least a decade.

100-percent Ownership

According to LifeSite, the German bishops are 100-percent owners of the second largest publisher in German, Weltbuild. Reported LifeSite:

It is wholly owned by the German bishops and has a $1.7 billion annual turnover. Its 2,500 porn titles (with covers too sexually explicit to reproduce) include perverse sexual fantasy of every type. WELTBILD also sells books promoting Satanism, the occult, esoterism, and anti-Christian atheist propaganda.

And that isn’t the only perversion the bishops are peddling. They also own 50 percent of another bookseller that publishes pornographic novels.

Get Lost

But worse than the publishing itself is the response Catholic laity received when they tried to put a stop to the scandal.

LifeSite reported that Catholic activist Gabriele Kuby sent a 70-page file to every German bishop outlining the problem. The bishops rebuffed her. “Each of the affected bishops received 70 pages of documentation in 2008 detailing the fact that the publishing company was selling the pornographic titles,” the website reported.

She noted that most bishops ignored the communications, not even bothering to reply. The Archdiocese of Munich did reply, said Kuby, but she says their response was “arrogant and spiteful.”

Another Catholic, Bernhard Mueller, who runs the Catholic magazine Pur, finally blew the whistle. He “was himself involved in trying to have the bishops resolve the scandal internally,” LifeSite reported.

Now, PUR’s front page story covering the current state of affairs is titled “Bishops as porn producers.”

In his coverage of the now-public scandal, Mueller describes the 10-year-long attempt to convince the bishops to take action on the matter. He concludes: “But over the years, all internal efforts to bring the scandal have come to nothing.”

Corruption Rampant in Catholic Hierarchy

In an opinion piece for LifeSite, Steve Jalevac explained that the exposure of a sodomite underground that appears to control the hierarchy, doesn’t seem to have done much good, and he praises the secular media for bringing the terrible scandal to light.

“Once again,” he wrote, “even though they have a strong anti-Christian bias, secular media are owed thanks for exposing important facts that Church leaders and their tightly controlled Catholic media withhold from the public.”

Many bishops still do not seem to have learned a thing from the huge sex abuse scandals of not too many years ago. Denial, cover up the truth and attack the credibility and character of the whistleblowers still seem to be the mandatory elements of the response template, unless finally forced to take at least some action by public revelations of undeniable facts.

Jalevac also wrote that the sexual corruption mainly involves homosexuality and that it runs from the hierarchy through the priesthood down through seminaries and Catholic colleges. “Active homosexuality and acceptance of homosexuality among the clergy, including bishops and even cardinals and among religious, and in Catholic colleges and schools, and in the literature and programs in these institutions, has to a large degree still not been faced and firmly dealt with,” he wrote.

This reality is massively related to all the problems in the Church in the West. Scratch under the surface of many unexplainable, disturbing actions and neglects of clergy, and frequently, as I have personally found over the years, homosexuality is involved. In a smaller number of cases, other violations of sexual chastity are found. I have been amazed how accurate this rule of thumb has turned out to be.

Wildly dissident, rebellious educational institutions, such as Washington’s Georgetown University or Loyola U, are still not remotely held accountable by Church officials, as these colleges continue to form and spew out more fundamentally anti-Christian and sexually disordered graduates.

Faithful priests and bishops suffer under this regime of erotopathy that church leaders have permitted to spread, and those who try to rectify are “subject to harsh retributions,” Jalevac noted.

The German porn situation, from all the evidence I have seen over the years, was likely allowed to continue because a fair number of influential German clergy at all levels and their bureaucrats and other advisers possibly have no problem with this kind of porn and may use it themselves. Such is the degree of moral corruption that appears to exist in some parts of the Church, especially in the affluent, very comfortable and increasingly faithless West.

Old News

Yet Jalevac’s analysis is hardly surprising. Nor is it new.

Homosexuals have been running wild in the church for years, with seminaries getting nicknames such as “Notre Flame” and “Pink Palace.” And as the Boston Globe and other newspapers demonstrated in their disturbing and depressing reports, known homosexual priests such as John Geoghan molested altar boys and other young charges under the eyes of bishops who refused to stop it.

”For three decades, Geoghan preyed on young boys in a half-dozen parishes in the Boston area while church leaders looked the other way,” the Globe reported. His tally of victims is 150.

Another pervert priest molested more than 100 boys and girls.

Although the media portrayed the problem within the church as pedophilia, such was not the case, as a study of the sex scandals showed. As LifeSite reported in 2009, “a report commissioned by the US bishops ... found that in the overwhelming majority of cases the clergy involved were homosexuals, with 81 percent of victims being adolescent males.”

Yet sexual scandal does not affect the Catholic Church alone.

As The Associated Press reported in 2007, “The three companies that insure a majority of Protestant churches say they typically receive upward of 260 reports a year of children younger than 18 being sexually abused by members of the clergy, church staff members, volunteers or congregants.”

The three companies, AP reported, insure “165,495 churches and worship centers — mostly Protestant congregations — for liability against child sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct. They also insure more than 5,500 religious schools, camps and other organizations.”

Church Mutual reported an average of 100 sexual abuse cases a year involving minors over the last 10 years. GuideOne said it had received an average of 160 reports a year for the last 20 years. Brotherhood Mutual reported an average of 73 reports of child sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct a year for the last 15 years. Brotherhood does not specify which victims are younger than 18, so it is impossible to accurately add that to the total cases.

Photo of Pope Benedict the XVI: AP Images

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sixstring said:

Ok, Joseph Ratzinger
get tough tough and get cracking down on this scandal!Forget about promoting a New World Order Central Bank and focus on cleaning up this mess.

Dan Shanahan said he thanked God when he heard the news. He’d waited on it for years.

It came while he was in New Lenox last year, watching football and visiting family. His attorney called to tell him he had a letter from the Diocese of Joliet. Shanahan asked him to read it.

“The truth is here,” Shanahan said when the call ended. “It finally came. Five years later.”

Shanahan leveled serious accusations more than five years ago against the Rev. James Burnett, a former local priest.

Shanahan said Burnett abused him sexually in the late 1970s and early 1980s while Shanahan was an altar boy at St. Mary Catholic Church in Mokena.

In 2007, the Diocese said Shanahan’s claims weren’t credible. And a DuPage County judge dismissed his lawsuit against the Diocese because it came too long after the alleged abuse.

But last fall, Bishop J. Peter Sartain penned the letter Shanahan’s attorney read to him over the phone. It said the Diocesan Review Committee had reversed its previous ruling.

“Your allegations have been substantiated and are credible,” Sartain wrote to Shanahan.

Feeling vindicated, Shanahan said he kept the news to himself for nearly a year because he was waiting for the Diocese to make the revelation public. That didn’t happen, but the Diocese did confirm the authenticity of Sartain’s letter this week after a phone call from Sun-Times Media.

“The more I think about it,” Shanahan said, “how could I be surprised after what they did to me?”

Diocese spokesman Doug Delaney said the church wouldn’t make such an announcement out of respect for victims’ privacy. That’s why it never mentioned the reversal in Shanahan’s case. Sartain’s letter also offered money to Shanahan, though neither side would say how much was paid.

“We thought we’d addressed all the issues concerned, and we thought this was resolved,” Delaney said.

Burnett still denies ever abusing Shanahan. His attorney, Stuart Bressler, said Burnett was allowed to attend the review committee’s meeting. But he did so without a lawyer.

“He wasn’t allowed to have an attorney present on something that’s going to brand him something one wouldn’t want to be branded,” Bressler said.

But Sartain’s letter said Shanahan’s case was only resubmitted to the review committee after “a new allegation came forward regarding Father Burnett.”

While the Diocese wouldn’t say what that allegation was, Delaney said “he’s never been back in ministry, and he never will.”

Still, Shanahan said a public apology would have been the right thing for the Diocese to do. He doesn’t hide well his anger toward his childhood parish, calling it “money hungry” and a “secret society.”

His lawsuit, filed in May 2006, said Burnett abused him from 1978 to 1982 while Shanahan was between ages 8 and 12. He said it happened in the confessional.

He also said he was taught as a boy church issues and scandals “were not to be disclosed to the public at large or to law enforcement.” He alleged the Diocese knew of Burnett’s abuse and transferred him between churches to conceal the priest’s behavior.

Burnett’s supporters didn’t hold back, though, when Shanahan first pointed the finger at their pastor. Parishioners leapt to his defense, telling reporters Burnett wasn’t capable of such abuse.

Shanahan said he received threatening e-mails, and his father found an angry letter on his truck. Burnett also defended himself in the church bulletin.

“I am innocent of all the accusations that have been made against me and I know that that innocence will prevail,” Burnett wrote.

By then, though, the Diocese had already placed Burnett on an administrative leave from which he’d never return. Other accusers were coming forward.

While it declared in March 2007 Shanahan’s claims lacked credibility, the Diocese said it couldn’t resolve the credibility of claims against Burnett made by David Rudofski, who filed a lawsuit against Burnett a few months later.

Shanahan’s brother, Tim Shanahan, filed his own lawsuit at the same time as his brother’s against another priest from St. Mary, the Rev. William Virtue. That case was also dismissed. But the brothers’ attorney, Marc Pearlman, said the Diocese found Tim Shanahan’s accusations credible.

Denying Dan Shanahan of that same ruling, he said, amounted to a “horrible revictimization.”

“That’s perhaps as bad, if not worse, than the victimization in the first place,” Pearlman said.

Sexual abuse victims often feel ashamed of what happened to them, he said, and blame themselves. Shanahan said he still struggles with the stigma that comes along with being abused.

But Shanahan still calls himself a Christian. He said his experiences as a boy didn’t shake his faith in God.

“I know it’s not his fault,” Shanahan said. “The one thing I learned just from being a Christian, you never question him. I never do.”

Down the years an impressive array of high-achievers have been spawned on its sprawling campus, in a leafy corner of Ealing, from entertainers such as comedian Julian Clary and actor Andy Serkis (Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings films) to the BBC chairman Lord Patten. They were the fortunate ones.

This week, however, when I accompanied one St Benedict’s old boy back to the school, which he attended between the ages of six and 13, he began to shake visibly and clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

Painful memories: Jeff suffered serious abuse at St Benedict's Catholic school in Ealing
‘They say this is a place that instills Christian values but for me it was a living hell,’ said the man, now aged 42, who cannot be named for legal reasons but whom we shall call Jeff. ‘Just standing here makes me feel like being sick.’

Struggling to keep his emotions in check, he gestured towards the school’s motto. ‘You see that sign? It says “Teaching a way of life”. That’s a sick joke. Their way of life was abusing little kids.

‘When I came here I had a future, but they took my future away and ruined a lot of other boys, too.’

Having spent a harrowing afternoon listening to Jeff’s story, one understood his feelings. For he is among a steadily mounting number of Old Priorians, as former St Benedict’s pupils are called, coming forward to reveal how they were abused by paedophile monks and lay teachers at the £12,000-a-year independent day school, in an astonishing scandal spanning half-a-century.
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Jeff is one of several deeply damaged victims I have spoken to this week while investigating this child sex saga — the latest of many that have plunged the Catholic Church into a global crisis.

The ordeals they endured make a mockery of St Benedict’s mission statement: ‘To promote the development of young men and women who will . . . be happy in their personal and family lives.’

According to campaigners, those affected must number in the hundreds; and worse, many might have been spared if the seemingly endemic abuse had not been covered up for years by senior monks at adjoining Ealing Abbey, which founded the school and effectively serves as its governing body.

Harrowing: Hundreds of former pupils may have been abused at St Benedict's
Last week, finally, it emerged that the Vatican has ordered a high-level inquiry — known as an ‘apostolic visitation’ — into every aspect of life at the abbey, including the abuse claims and all related matters. It is thought to be the first such review instigated in Britain in modern times.

Conducted by the Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, John Arnold, and Father Richard Yeo, president of the English Benedictine Congregation, it has almost unlimited powers, and could, in theory, even close down the abbey and school — though, of course, nothing of the sort will happen.

More likely, say critics, there will be a few recommendations and a slap on the wrist, and a discreet veil will then be drawn over this embarrassing episode.

Indeed, it might never have been investigated at all but for the dogged persistence of Jonathan West, whose son attended St Benedict’s and who in 2009 happened to spot a small news item reporting indecent assault charges against a well-known priest and former junior school headmaster.

When the 49-year-old computer consultant posted the item on his blog he unwittingly opened the doors on dark secrets dating back half-a-century.

Dozens of former pupils came forward to recount how they, too, had been subjected to sexual abuse and sadistic bullying at the school.

Determined to root out more abuse and ensure it was never repeated, Mr West formed an action group, Against Abuse At Ealing Abbey (causing St Benedict’s headmaster Christopher Cleugh to suggest, in his prize-giving address last year, that they might be guilty of some anti-Catholic plot).

Mr West persuaded the Department of Education to send in the Independent Schools Inspectorate. In the face of mounting concern, the school commissioned its own inquiry conducted by Lord Carlile of Berriew, whose report will be presented to parents next Tuesday.

'When I came here I had a future - they took it away'Most remarkably, however, it was Mr West who convinced the Vatican that the apostolic visitation was necessary. Last June, he presented a five-page appraisal of events at the abbey to the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Menini — the Pope’s ambassador to Britain — who was sufficiently concerned to alert Rome.

When the two met, the following month, he was told the top-level review was already under way. Among the names in Mr West’s weighty dossier, the one that most frequently crops up is that of Father David Pearce, a former St Benedict’s junior school headmaster who served in the Dental Corps before being ordained as a priest, captained the school cadet force and liked to parade around in his khaki uniform and polished brown boots.

Among the countless pupils he leered over, pawed and sadistically caned, Pearce’s proclivities were well-known and they called him ‘Gay Dave’. So were his superiors in the abbey really unaware of his taste for young boys?

Pearce is said to have been the subject of complaints dating back decades, and in 2006 the school lost a civil action brought by a former pupil who claimed to have been abused by him. He received £43,000 in damages.

Disturbingly, however, these cases were not then brought to the attention of parents, and Pearce was allowed to remain in the abbey under a ‘restricted covenant’, an order made by the Abbot supposedly limiting his contact with minors. Or rather, as the Abbot, Dom Martin Shiperlee, put it, protecting him from ‘unfounded allegations’.

The ineffectiveness of this order became apparent two years later when Pearce abused another St Benedict’s pupil, a teenager employed by the abbey to do washing up.

It was not until 2009 that his terrifying, 35-year reign of abuse was brought to a halt. He was jailed for eight years (later reduced to five) for assaulting a string of boys between 1972 and 2007.

Investigating: The Vatican has ordered a high-level enquiry, known as an 'apostolic visitation'
Jeff says he was assaulted by Pearce, but the prosecution decided that as the priest had pleaded guilty to 11 other charges, they would offer no evidence in Jeff’s case (one of nine in addition to the 11 Pearce confessed to) and the judge ordered it should be left to lie on the file.

But another of Jeff’s tormentors, John Maestri, an eccentric former maths master who, by dark irony, also served as the ‘master of discipline’ was convicted of assaulting him in a separate case.

It transpired that Maestri had already been jailed for two-and-a-half years in 2003 for abusing a boy in his charge (who lured him to a secretly recorded meeting at which the teacher attempted to buy his silence). But his only punishment for assaulting Jeff was a community rehabilitation order.

Listening to Jeff’s story, it is difficult to believe Maestri escaped so lightly. Before he fell into the maths master’s clutches he was a bright, middle-class lad with choirboy looks, yet by the time he was ‘asked to leave’ the school at 13, his character was utterly transformed.

He had become a sexually confused, dangerously disruptive misfit who would lock himself away in his bedroom and heat up live bullets until they exploded.

His nightmare began when he entered the middle school, then housed in a redbrick Victorian building at the age of 11. There he was among several boys preyed on by Maestri and Pearce .

The first sexual assault he remembers came when he was sent for private tuition one Saturday morning at Maestri’s house near the school. As he worked, the teacher made him sit on his lap, kissed and fondled him and told him he ‘loved’ him. Terrified and nauseated, Jeff tried to brush him off by replying that he felt the same way, but was ‘not ready’ for a relationship.

‘So my first kiss wasn’t with a pretty girl, like everyone else, it was with some old man,’ he says, his anger never far from the surface.

A former abbot jumped bail and vanished in Italy
The humiliation went on for two years, he reveals. On one occasion, after Jeff caught Pearce abusing another boy, the priest got three older pupils to ram him backwards against a scaffolding pole that was sticking out from one of the school buildings. ‘I still suffer from the pain of that, 30 years on.’
Later, he drifted between the Army and various menial jobs, suffered a nervous breakdown, lost the right to see his two-year-old daughter, and now lives alone, on benefits, in a grim flat in Kentish Town, North London.

He is being treated for complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Damaged as he may be, however, Jeff has survived. Others did not.

In an apparent fit of despair, one of his friends in the middle school, Lewis de Luca, shot himself in the temple with an airgun at 16. It took 13 months for him to die.

An inquest heard that he had become depressed after being accused — falsely, he insisted — of stealing a tennis racquet at St Benedict’s, and expelled on the eve of his O Levels. Jeff is convinced it was the paedophile masters who really drove him to his death.

At 13, he says, Lewis had been one of the school’s most popular boys — outgoing, handsome and a champion athlete. Then he was summoned to a monk’s office where it seems he was violently assaulted. Jeff saw him emerge white-faced and trembling with his trousers soiled.

‘Lewis was terribly abused; broken down,’ he told me. ‘You just knew. I left the school at 13, and lost touch with him, and then one day I heard he was dead. I am absolutely convinced it had something to do with what happened to him at that school.’

Having followed the unfolding scandal at St Benedict’s, Lewis de Luca’s mother Rosalind harbours the same suspicions.

The experience of losing her teenage son was so devastating, she told me, that for many years she blanked out many memories. But now she remembers how he came home one day and told her someone, a teacher, had ‘made a pass’ at him, and he had made it clear he wasn’t interested.

She hadn’t thought this incident to be serious, but now wonders whether it was a hint of something far more sinister. ‘It’s very disturbing for a mother to think he might have been subjected to abuse and couldn’t tell me about it,’ she said. ‘It’s such a horrible feeling. In those days, I’d heard about Gay Dave, but I thought the boys were making it up. I didn’t think it was happening. They were priests. Men of God. I just didn’t believe they could go around doing that sort of thing.’

It will come as scant consolation to Mrs de Luca, but her unquestioning faith was typical among parents in those days.

Another victim, who is now 58 and runs an antiques business in Somerset, told me how he had only recently summoned the courage to tell his 86-year-old mother what happened to him at St Benedict’s during the mid-Sixties. He didn’t want to leave any secrets between them, he explained.

His abuser, he claims, was Father Kevin Horsey, a terrifyingly saturnine, 6ft 8in monk with ‘hands like shovels’ who abused him as he changed after rugby games at the school playing fields in Perivale.

‘I was only 11 years old and he was this huge, daunting man in black robes,’ he recalls. ‘Besides, I was a scholarship boy, raised on a council estate, and was very naive. I had read Tom Brown’s Schooldays, and I just thought these things happened and you had to put up with them.’

Father Kevin died several years ago, so he cannot answer for his alleged sins. But his victim is disgusted that a building at St Benedict’s is named in his honour. The man recently volunteered his story to police investigating the abuse allegations, hoping it might help piece the case together.

The scandal has even drawn in one of the Benedictine Order’s most respected stalwarts, 81-year-old Father Lawrence Soper, who taught at the school between 1972 and 1984 and served for nine years as Abbot of Ealing until 2000, when he was appointed treasurer at the order’s Rome HQ.

Arrested after abuse allegations made against him last September, he was permitted to keep his passport and return to Italy, whereupon he jumped bail. He has not been seen for eight months now.

This week, as prosecutors prepared a European Arrest Warrant, his superiors in Rome insisted they had no idea where he was, but some observers are convinced he is being sheltered by the Church.

Given the way leading Roman Catholics have closed ranks to protect their own in similar scandals in America, Ireland and elsewhere, it wouldn’t be surprising.

Both abbey and school insist the paedophile priests have been purged (though one priest, Father Gregory Chillman, is on ‘restricted ministry’ after allegations of inappropriate behaviour, which he denies).

They say a stringent new child protection policy is in place, and the sons and daughters of London’s Catholic elite are no longer at risk.

Headmaster Mr Cleugh said: ‘All those associated with the school have been shocked and horrified by what’s occurred. We do know very serious abuse did take place and for that I wholeheartedly apologise on behalf of the school.

‘Our focus now is on making sure we do all we can to make sure this does not happen again. But St Benedict’s has worked hard to address past failings and to ensure that parents and pupils have confidence in the school and its staff.’

The Vatican-ordered visitation will doubtless endorse this.

But without the tenacity of one public-minded citizen, the wretchedly betrayed victims of St Benedict’s might have been silenced for ever.
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Go.SungardAS.comAdd your comments Comments (26)Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below, or debate this issue live on our message boards.
The comments below have been moderated in advance.
Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated View all Any person who abuses is wicked, especially those who are trusted to lead, care for and teach children. I hope the Vatican does all they can to weed evil people out of the Catholic church.
- BlueBrian, Stockport, UK, 05/11/2011 12:36
Click to rate Rating 84 Report abuse
In Ireland all the governments since 1921 knew the church was abusing children but covered it up.
- Captain Peacock, Shangri-Li, 05/11/2011 12:33
Click to rate Rating 96 Report abuse
Back in the early 1920s my father (as a young boy) was abused by a Roman Catholic priest. It ruined his life, his marriage, and affected both my younger brother and I for years. Truly the damage done to these victims, and their families is terrible and long lasting indeed. And yet the Church has been in denial for 'God alone' knows how many years! As my father once said "There are more hypocrites in the church, than outside" Frankly the cover up of these despicable crimes, including moving some of these evil offenders to other unsuspecting parishes disgusts me! But still both Rome, and the Pope try to look the other way. Hypocrites indeed!
- Mark Bailey, Waltham Abbey, UK, 05/11/2011 11:24
Click to rate Rating 113 Report abuse
The place should be shut down. I know there may well be innocent people there now, but a line has to be drawn that is plain for all to see.
- ER, London, 05/11/2011 10:56
Click to rate Rating 72 Report abuse
I was a pupil at a catholic primary school in the 60's and lost count of the times I was slapped by nun's, legs, face anywhere and not only me. Once I was slapped around the face for not understanding a maths problem. Not only that, I was an altar boy and was made advances to by a priest. I was lucky as I told him to leave me alone or I would tell my parents. Sadly, some of my friends wern't so lucky. I read that this priest went to America and was finally caught but thats no help to all the boys he abused. Sadly, that was my end of being religious....3 Hail Mary's and don't do it again. Catholicism is a sad religion, let the priests marry and there will be less perverts and also less violent nuns as they will have some compassion in them if they had children.
- Will, Hants, 05/11/2011 10:53
Click to rate Rating 100 Report abuse
Ah, the people who go into a faint at the thought of homosexuals getting married.
- Len, Leeds.UK, 05/11/2011 10:45

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Leading Irish priest criticizes Catholic hierarchy for 'burying its head in ...
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Seventeen years after the late Brendan Smyth was convicted of child sexual abuse, not alone are we still at square one but we have actually gone backwards. "This is because of our dearth of leadership," he said. "Our prelates are, by and large, ...
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The Charleston area has had its share of sexual predators who have preyed upon children over the years. They include:

Eddie Fischer

The former Porter-Gaud teacher was arrested on molestation charges in October 1997 and later admitted to sexually abusing more than 40 boys during his four-decade teaching career in Charleston's public and private schools. Evidence at a civil trial showed Porter-Gaud officials knew Fischer was molesting students but helped him get jobs at other schools where he continued his behavior as a pedophile. He died in prison in 2002 while serving a 20-year sentence.

Catholic molestation cases

Since the 1950s, the Diocese of Charleston has seen 50 claims involving 28 Catholic priests and lay people named as perpetrators, and paid more than $16 million in damage settlements.

Among the local priests caught up in abuse allegations was Monsignor Frederick J. Hopwood, who taught at Bishop England High School in the 1950s and served as The Citadel's chaplain. At least 10 men accused him of abuse, and he later pleaded guilty to committing a lewd act on one.

The Rev. Eugene Luke Condon, another popular Charleston priest, pleaded guilty in 1998 to committing lewd acts on boys. During that investigation, authorities found a trunk containing about 150 photographs of naked adolescent boys taken in the rectory of Stella Maris Catholic Church on Sullivan's Island.

And the Rev. Raymond DuMouchel died in 2006 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually assaulted three young women in the 1950s in Charleston.

Dr. Robert Francis Marion III

The West Ashley pediatrician pleaded guilty in 2002 to molesting seven children between 1977 and 1994 at his Wadmalaw Island home and at his medical office. He is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Pastor Tyrone Moore

Moore, former pastor of Full Word Ministries in North Charleston, was accused of molesting or assaulting eight young males at the church or in his home between 2002 and 2006. He was already a registered sex offender at the time, having previously pleaded guilty in 1989 and 1991 to sexually abusing young girls while serving as choir director at his grandfather's church. He is now serving a 30-year prison term.
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A priest accused of sex abuse has signed a two page confession. It claims church leaders knew about the abuse but the priest continued to have access to kids, including a boys’ choir at Conception Abbey in Missouri.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests or SNAP says this confession is evidence that church leaders were more concerned about covering up allegations of abuse than about protecting kids. SNAP is calling attention to Father Bede Parry’s two page confession. They say it’s an example of church leaders failing kids.

“Father Parry admits multiple times to his superiors that he was molesting children,” said Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director for SNAP. “At some point he’s sent for treatment and then put him back in situations where he’s with children.”

Parry admits to one possibly two victims in the 80′s that were part of the Conception Abbey Boys’ Choir. That came after Parry says he’d admitted to three other victims at the Abbey in the 70′s.

“There’s a man who admits he’s molesting kids,” she said. “They admit he’s molesting kids and put him in treatment but say don’t do it again and allow him to work with children that’s beyond reckless and beyond callous.”

SNAP passed out fliers encouraging those who have information about any abuse case to go to the police.

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph says it is not named in the lawsuit against Parry, that he was never a pastor in the Diocese and that Parry is no longer a Roman Catholic priest. Parry writes that he was dismissed from the Catholic church and then ordained Episcopalian in 2002. SNAP says Catholic church leadership should have acted sooner to stop abuse.

“All of us are responsible to protect children, all of us,” said Sister Jeanne Christensen with SNAP.

In the confession, Parry begs for forgiveness saying he’s haunted by what he’s done and saying “Not a day passes when I do not regret my conduct.”

To see the confession letter click here.

Comments

Mary C4 days ago

So, is SNAP also going to indict the therapists who also knew and are mandated reporters or are they off the hook? I think what the Church did is horrendous but SNAP never goes beyond the Church in their accusations. That the Episcopal Church also ordained him is relevant. Why are they off the hook? I don't think the Catholic Diocese is in fact to blame other than he was in their jurisdiction. If the Religious order didn't tell the bishop - how is he to do anything and the Religious order is responsible anyway. I'd also like to know the Missouri Laws of 1970 - perhaps no crime was committed by the Religious Superiors at all then. After 1974, we have a different story but when did the federal mandated reporting laws really take effect. But even then, what were the state laws? I find it all so much more complicated than is ever discussed. I'm finding it difficult to always blame the "system" or the "hierarchy" for the bad behavior of individuals, Individual bishops behaving badly and individual priests behaving badly. If we found SNAP members behaving badly and they do nothing - are they responsible? or is it just the Catholic Church that somehow is the only organization or institution that belongs in the crosshairs? And, don't give me - they were the only ones and they hold the moral high ground. Tell me ALSO about the therapists, the teachers, the others who also hold positions who looked and still continue to look the other way when sexual abuse happens in or outside the Church.

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0

Francis4 days ago

atholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:
Yesterday, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a press conference in front of the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph to bring attention to a case involving an Episcopal priest, Bede Parry, who is being charged with molesting young boys while he was studying to be a Catholic priest. Parry was thrown out of the Benedictines of Conception Abbey in Missouri back in 1990; then he left for Las Vegas; eventually he became an Episcopal priest there. The person who knew about his record of abuse and still allowed him to join the clergy of the Episcopal Church was the Episcopal Bishop of Nevada, Katharine Jefferts Schori; today she is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the U.S., located in New York City
The Kansas City Star, which has been relentless in its pursuit of clergy abuse by Catholic priests, said absolutely nothing about this case today. Is this because it involves another religion? Or is it because it implicates a woman clergyperson, thus getting in the way of the contrived narrative that Catholic bishops have some kind of special “old boy” network that inhibits them from being forthcoming? No matter, to think that the person who is the head of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. is named in a cover up involving the sexual abuse of minors—and isn’t even mentioned in the Star—speaks volumes about its politically driven agenda against Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop Robert Finn.
Then there is the politics of SNAP. Can anyone believe that SNAP would hold a press conference in front of a Jewish synagogue about a case involving the sexual abuse of a minor committed by a minister? So why did it pick the most prominent Catholic cathedral in the Diocese for its press conference, especially when the issue has nothing to do with the Diocese? (Parry was never a priest there—he was an order priest.)

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+1

Ryan O'Hanlon4 days ago

Patrick,

It would be good of you to do some research and maybe educate yourself on some context. If you can't do that yourself, maybe you can place the blame on the lazy reporter who is a useful idiot on this Catholic witch hunt.

For context, this admission is from the 1970's. This isn't new 'news.' Groups like SNAP are not pure of heart and if they make a statement, your betting odds should go on them lying (or at the very least fabricating outside the realm of reality).

The Church has spent a large fortune on prevention programs and has worked with authorities to put offenders through the hoops of the normal justice system.

Maybe the FBI can investigate public schools, volunteer groups, or the TSA. Molesters are clever people that use their position of authority over children to molest kids. Back in the 1970's, they saw the Church as a great outlet to do that. If you knew half of what Priests and people who work at churches had to do (and you don't know half. You don't know any.) then you'd change your tune.

Quit acting like molestation is part of the theology of the Church. You look like a blithering fool.

Reply

+2

Ryan O'Hanlon4 days ago

Judy,

He wasn't a pastor and never led a congregation. Dictionary 101.

Did the children survive? I am curious to know whether they'll be able to join your group. Why do you only allow survivors in?

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+2

617patrick5 days ago

Get the FBI to use RICO statutes to investigate the Catholic church. The problems are MUCH worse than anyone knows.

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0

Judy Block-Jones5 days ago

"The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph says that Parry was never a pastor in the Diocese"?

Not true, the bishop of a diocese is responsible for every religious organization within his territory,. He has to allow them in, and he can kick them out.

So many times it boggles one's mind, how many adults and church officials know about a cleric who sexually abuses kids? .And yet none of the pick up the phone and dial 911 to get him put in jail. How on earth do these people sleep at night, knowing that another child is at risk of being sexually abused.

Church officials can not be trusted to have victims and our children’s best interest at heart.

Hopefully others who may have knowledge or been harmed by Bede Parry will have the courage to speak up and report it to police, not church officials. Crimes against kids, however old, should be investigated by the independent professionals in law enforcement, not the biased amateurs in church offices.

Keep in mind your silence only hurts, and by speaking up there is a chance for healing, exposing the truth, and therefore protecting others.

This is surreal. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States, Katharine Jefferts Schori, knew about the sexual abuse activities of a homosexual candidate for the Episcopal priesthood, did nothing about it, and indeed allowed him to become a priest.

Today, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a press conference outside the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph blaming members of the Catholic, as well as Episcopal, clergy.

The accused clergyman, Bede Parry, is a former member of the Benedictines of Conception Abbey in Missouri. In the 1970s, he sexually abused young males. He was later kicked out of the Abbey, and after being denied entrance into a Las Vegas monastery, he became an organist at All Saints Episcopal in Vegas. He then sought to become an Episcopal priest.

In 2002, he informed the Episcopal Bishop of Nevada at the time, Katharine Jefferts Schori, of his latest (1987) sexual abuse transgression. Shortly thereafter, Bishop Jefferts Schori was told by an official at Conception Abbey about Parry’s past; she was even given damaging psychological records on him.

No matter, in 2004, she welcomed him as an Episcopal priest. In July, 2011 Parry resigned from All Saints Episcopal following a lawsuit against him (he is charged with abuse when he was studying to be a Catholic priest).

It is important to note that at no time was Bede Parry a priest in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. Nor is it true that the Diocese is named in the lawsuit.

To top things off, Parry is not a Catholic priest. So why is SNAP advising Catholics to “come clean now” when the dirt is not on their hands? Why did it hold a press conference in Kansas City by the Cathedral? Because they hate Bishop Robert Finn? Why wasn’t it in New York City, home to the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States? She’s the issue—not Bishop Finn.

About the author:
William Donohue

William Donohue is the current president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the United States, and has held that position since 1993.